Terps, borgs and the pink granite coast: Pilgrims and enclos paroissiaux

Having received so many earthly riches from the linen trade the wealthy merchants of Brittany, particularly those in the villages behind the major linen port of Morlaix, sought to gain good graces from the heavenly sphere as well. They set about building grand enclos paroissiaux - or Parish Closes, which they embellished as abundantly as their deep purses would stretch.

We hunted these parishes down, visiting as many as we could, one fine day.

As the linen money kept rolling in the Breton parish enclosures became decorated to the point of flamboyant. Gothic flamboyant is the most common style. Stone is curlicued, steeples and belfries tower to near-toppling over the parish, holy structures groan under the weight of figurative and elaborate stone dressing.

A Parish Close in Brittany has some particular, even distinctive, features. The village church and cemetery and all the holy buildings set aside as places of worship are typically walled.

This need for an enclosure might have its origins in the Celtic notion of keeping sacred things defined. Bretons stem from the Celts. The churches are often the plainest part of the complex, though quite frequently the ceiling of the nave is painted as blue as the sky and encrusted with golden stars, and individual and separate carved figures of all twelve apostles appear somewhere in the church.

The walled enclosure usually has openings. Often, in these Breton villages, there is an august triumphal arch for truly magnificent occasions like weddings and funerals and pardon ceremonies.

Behind the arch, in the sacred ground, stands either a single stone cross or a more complex stone calvaire, or calvary. If it is a single stone cross then typically the figure displayed is that of Jesus. More often an Enclos Paroissial displays a calvary, with many crosses, and women, particularly the Marys, seen present as witnesses to the crucifixions.

Finally, there is an ossuary, a charnel house, a bone house. In this building relics of the dead were often kept. At the very minimum, two long bones and a skull, from which the skull and crossbones stems, were stored: the symbol of man's mortality. Sometimes, too, the ossuary is more like a crypt, or a funerary chapel, deep in the bowels of the church.

These were the times of the touring Pilgrims. From church to church they traipsed all over the continent. Somewhat like modern day tourists, scores of pilgrims would have been seeking a bed, an ale, and a banquet at the very least. Each evening.

There would have been large numbers of pilgrims and each parish would have been very keen to compete for their custom, for while the linen money built these extraordinary closes, attracting pilgrims would surely have helped defray the ongoing costs. For such small villages, in such tiny parishes, to have built such extraordinary pieces of work was an amazing thing in that pocket of time in history.

We spent the day agape. But finished off wondering: where did all the pilgrims go?