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St-Gobrien church, the parish church of the village of Morieux in Brittany, is a fine example of the Breton Romanesque style of the late 11th and early 12th century. This style is characterized In Brittany by the verticality with the scarcity of horizontal elements, the rarity and smallness of the openings, the sobriety of the external decoration and the frequency of the flat East facades. This will for verticality is well demonstrated by the buttresses with no architectural reason such as those of the western facade which don’t abut any inner arch.

Romanesque buildings are rare in Brittany, and those well preserved are very rare, most of them having been replaced by late Gothic buildings during the Golden Age of ducal Brittany in the 15th and 16th centuries. This rarity makes even more precious the church of Morieux, in addition to its own beauty. Its nave remained almost intact, only the western portal was replaced in the Gothic period but retaining its Romanesque surrounding. The choir has been greatly altered, but the Gothic East facade is based on the foundations of the Romanesque wall and the inner arches have been pierced in the ancient Romanesque walls.

A striking element of the masonry of this building is their strong polychromy created by the contrast of light sandstone, beige or gray, and of "renard” (fox), a granular ferruginous pudding of dark brown color.

St-Gobrien church is listed in the Monuments Historiques (Historical French Heritage) since 1989 and its inner part (including a set of Romanesque and Gothic frescoes) is classified since 1995,

License: common law (copyright) | Author: Secanda

Free use for private purposes. Any commercial use is prohibited.

Categories: Churches, Chapels and Abbeys | Middle Ages s.l. | High Middle Ages | France | France /Brittany |