Église Saint-Gérand du Palais, Gothic Revival church in Le Palais, France.
Église Saint-Gérand du Palais is a neo-Gothic hall church built in 1905 to plans by canon Jean-Marie Abgrall, with walls of schist and granite and a slate spire. Its central square tower carries a louvered belfry, a clock face and a pointed-arch doorway with a carved tympanum and wooden double doors. Three naves of six bays open beneath tall pointed windows with tracery.
A first church stood on this site from 1677 to 1684 and was badly damaged by a fire in 1894, then demolished in 1904. The present church was built in 1905 to plans by canon Jean-Marie Abgrall. Its slate spire was added in 1992, the year the organ was restored, and the whole building was listed as a monument historique on 31 July 2015.
The interior features blue and gold Art Deco mosaics created by the Maumejean workshops during the 1930s, which shape the visual character of the space alongside seventeen stained glass windows.
The church stands on rue de l'Église in Le Palais, on Belle-Île-en-Mer. The entrance is the pointed-arch doorway with carved tympanum and wooden double doors at the base of the tower, not on a town square. The building is a listed monument historique, so group visits and guided tours are arranged on request rather than at fixed times.
The 1864 organ by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was donated to the parish in 1875 and kept when the old church was demolished in 1904. It has been classified as a monument historique since 1988. Four 18th-century statues of Saints Isidore, Peter, Yves and Louis, also listed, came from the earlier church.
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