The Rough Guide told us about an interesting church at
Kermaria-an-Isquit and we headed for that. Unfortunately, it was closed and a
notice said that it was only open in the afternoon if you phoned a given number.
There were other people who wanted to visit and they phoned and told us that
there would be someone there at 14:00. We headed off to the next village of
Lanleff where there was a sign to a ‘Temple’. This intrigued us and we parked
in the very convenient motorhome parking area, had lunch and walked to the
site, stopping off to have a look at the church on the way. The ‘temple’ turned
out to be a circular structure that was originally thought to be ancient. It
has now been established that it is a Romanesque church built in the late 11th
or early 12th century and based on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
It is a really fascinating building and well worth a visit.
We returned to the church in Kermaria-an-Isquit to find the same people that we
had met in the morning and a lady arriving to open the church. She gave a
guided tour in French but there was a leaflet in English that gave us plenty of
information, enabling us to do a self-guided tour. Discovered under a layer of
whitewash there are mediaeval scenes of the ‘dance of death’ painted around the
walls. Although some it has been lost, much is very clear and it shows people
of high and low status holding hands with skeletons as they move towards death.
An inscription under the painting is a message from the dead that reminds us that
they were once like us and that we will all eventually have to join their
dance.
We drove on to Plouezec and our windswept campsite set on a hill with great
views over the sea.
Photos: The temple at Lanleff; Two scenes from the ‘Dance of Death’.
