Église Notre-Dame de Runan, Gothic church in Runan, France.
Église Notre-Dame de Runan is a Gothic church in Brittany with tall decorative windows and a richly ornamented southern wall. The facade displays various coat-of-arms symbols carved into the stone, documenting the family history of those who built it.
Runan is recorded in a 1182 charter of Duke Conan IV confirming donations to the Knights Templar, but a chapel is only attested from 1381, when Duke John IV appointed a chaplain and founded a mass. The Templars' holdings passed in the 13th century to the Hospitallers of Saint John, whose commanderies of Le Palacret and La Feuillée remained lords of the place. Fairs granted by John V in 1423 and later by Francis I and Henry III funded the campaigns; the church became a parish only in 1825.
The grand pardon, held on the Saturday before the last Sunday of July, was tied to fairs granted by the Dukes of Brittany, and Duke John V's arms and motto appear in the tympanum of the main window above the local nobles' coats of arms. The Gothic retable, moved in the 19th century to the baptismal chapel, survives inside.
The church stands in the village of Runan, in the Côtes-d'Armor; the calvary and the low stone wall of the former cemetery enclosure stand beside the paved area at its east end. Entry is through the west bell tower-porch, whose groin-vaulted interior leads into the nave. The 1895 neo-Gothic sacristy is attached to the south wall of the chevet.
The southern porch was built in the 1430s and features scenes from biblical stories carved directly into stone. These finely sculpted reliefs rank among the most skilled craftsmanship found anywhere on the building and draw visitors who take time studying the details closely.
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