Chapelle de Prigny, Romanesque chapel in Les Moutiers-en-Retz, France

Chapelle de Prigny is a Romanesque chapel built mainly in the 11th century, with a single nave measuring 17.60 m by 6.90 m inside and whitewashed walls. Its square bell tower, about 7 m per side and 10 m tall, was added later, probably in the 14th century, and carries a slate spire with a metal cross and weather vane. The south facade, enlarged in the early 18th century, has a basket-handle doorway, a large window and an oculus in the gable.

The chapel began as the castral chapel of the fortified town of Prigny, perched on an oppidum overlooking the Bay of Bourgneuf. In the 11th century its rights passed to the Abbey of Saint-Jouin de Marnes, which founded the priory of Saint-Nicolas outside the walls; the chapel then became Prigny's parish church. After the priory was destroyed in 1730, worship moved here and the building was enlarged. Saved from demolition in 1838, it was restored in 1876 with a donation from Abbé Baconnais.

The chapel is the southernmost sanctuary where the Breton saint Guénolé is honoured, and a statue of him stands in the south side altar beside Saint Augustine and Saint Anthony of Padua. The north retable holds a Gothic-era Virgin and Child from the Norman school, with statues of Saint Joseph and Saint Germain in its side niches.

The chapel stands on a former oppidum above the Marais breton, reached from the village of Prigny in Les Moutiers-en-Retz. The building is not oriented east-west but north-south, so the entrance gable faces south. A stone slab at the entrance to the placître once kept pigs and poultry out of the graves. The bell in the tower can still be handled by visitors.

The chapel runs north to south rather than following the traditional east to west orientation of churches from its era. This quirk leaves visitors and historians wondering why the builders chose such an unusual alignment.