It is so tall, soaring above the tree-line, that at first sight one thinks of a lighthouse or at least a lookout tower. But Kerroc’h is stranger than that.
In the 1800s Paimpol was the base of fishing boats which fished for cod off Iceland in the dangerous weather of the North Atlantic. As the “goélettes islandaises” left the port they passed a little hill, and two local ladies, the Janoly sisters, offered to pay for a statue of Our Lady to be placed on the hill to give a blessing to the boats as they left the port. The hill is in the commune of Ploubazlanec and owned by its mayor, but he freely donated the land.
A simple statue would be hidden by the trees, so the bishop of Saint-Brieuc and Tréguier, Monseigneur Augustin David, suggested putting the statue on a tower. The tower he proposed was a copy of the Tower of David which dominated the skyline of Jerusalem and was believed to have been constructed for David himself. The tower was built.
But the tower has a very characteristic shape, nothing to do with a king of Israel who lived around 1000 BC. The tower in Jerusalem is in fact the minaret of a mosque built in the 1400s. The battlemented hexagonal stone arcade surrounding the tower base adds an eastern flavour to the brick tower. Further battlements ornament the top of the tower.
The tower was given the planned statue of the Virgin Mary, facing out to sea, watching over the boats as they passed. But a tower for conferring a blessing on the fishing fleet caught the imagination of more than the original instigators. Other contributors suggested other statues, so there are now three on top of the tower jammed into an overcrowded space intended for one.
An obvious addition was Sainte Anne, mother of the Virgin and especially revered throughout Brittany. She was also placed facing out to sea. The third figure is a little more surprising. The tallest statue, standing with his back to the sea, facing the port, is Saint Joseph with the baby Jesus in his arms. I find this a little odd; there are hundreds of depictions of Sainte Anne with the Virgin Mary and Jesus, but they don’t often include Joseph as well, and this is the only representation I know of Joseph carrying the baby.
Apparently there’s a fantastic view from the top of the tower, but that wasn’t the intended use of the building so little expense was paid for the internal stairs, which are now somewhat dangerous. The whole edifice stands on the only hill in a flattish landscape surrounded by water, regularly exposed to strong winds and inclement weather. The elaborate design is likely to cost a great deal to maintain.
But it has a place as evidence of great local sympathy for men engaged in a difficult and dangerous trade, from which too many didn’t return. It draws the eye from a distance. And three Christian statues on an Islamic minaret is surely unique…
Comentários