LA CHAPELLE ET LE VILLAGE DE PRIGNY

Discover the district of Prigny, the ancient village of Moutiers-en-Retz, and its streets lined with high walls dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries. Look for the ballast stones brought by ships from the north, as well as ancient wells and windmills. Discover the chapel, which is in fact the first church in Moutiers, because until the 11th century, Moutiers was a mere suburb of Prigny. Situated on the ancient shore of the Gulf of Machecoul, Prigny overlooks the Breton marshes. During the Roman conquest, the town was fortified and became an "oppidum" guarding the Baie de Bourgneuf and the 2 Roman roads leading to it. The chapel is in fact the first church in Moutiers-en-Retz: the church of Saint-Jean-le-Baptiste. Today, it's called a chapel by the locals, simply because of its small size. Dating from the 11th century, the Prigny chapel is a squat building with four semicircular openings, a telling detail of its early Romanesque style. The later bell tower probably served as a watchtower for the Templars, overlooking the Baie de Bourgneuf and the Marais Breton. As you enter, you'll see the 17th-century altarpieces, typical of Baroque art and a real treasure of this building, as well as the Viking anchor. Practical information: In 2023, the chapel will be closed for restoration. To take part in the Prigny chapel restoration campaign, make a donation to the Fondation du Patrimoine. THE HISTORY OF THE PRIGNY CHAPEL IN DETAIL The chapel The chapel dates back to the 11th century. It is 17.60 m long and 6.90 m wide. Unlike other churches of the period, this one is not oriented. It is built north-south. No one who has studied Prigny understands the reason for this lack of orientation. Perhaps the nearby château prevented an opening along its wall: pure hypothesis. Prigny's openings bear witness to the early Romanesque style, as does the angled buttress at the south-west corner of the façade. Other buttresses supporting the walls to the west bear witness to the pre-Romanesque period. The few round-arched openings confirm the building's age. To the south, facing the Breton marshes, a large basket-handle door, the chapel's main door, is surmounted by a window and, at the top of the gable, an oculus. The coat-of-arms, worn by wind erosion and absolutely illegible, is perhaps that of the Sires de Rais or, by its drapery, that of some commendatory abbot. You can enter through the secondary side door to the east. Opposite, another door gives access to the bell tower. This vast 50m2 room, with its large fireplace, served for a time as the parish priest's living quarters, when conventuality ceased at the abbey (la Bouie)... The chapel's thick walls are whitewashed, as were the houses in the area. Four windows illuminate the building, whose wooden vault reveals large pieces of framework. The date of restoration is engraved on one of them: 1641. The bell tower A square mass measuring 7m on each side, with a height of 10m, it forms a masonry cube with no external openings. It post-dates the church itself, and seems to have served as a watchtower for the Templars, who for a time were the ducal maréchaussée, responsible for policing the road and monitoring merchants and pilgrims. The pig stone A cemetery already existed around the church in the early Middle Ages. On the eastern side of the enclosure wall, opposite the side door, you can see an indentation closed halfway up by a slab of schist. This is a "pig stone". Pigs used to graze on the communal land around places of worship. But pigs had a nasty habit of entering cemeteries, where they sometimes dug up the dead. The Duke of Brittany therefore asked for a stone to be placed at the entrance, so that Christians could step over it, but the pigs could not enter. The three altars The richness of this church lies in its three 17th-century altars. The high altar is dedicated to the patron saint of the church, St. John the Baptist. The altarpiece is composed of columns, niches and garlands. At the top, we see Saint John and his lamb. On either side of this main altar are two statues: Saint Luke the Evangelist and Saint Marcoul, Abbot of Nanteuil. The central painting has disappeared. When the church was restored in 1876, Christ was placed on the altar, along with the Virgin of Sorrows and the apostle St. John. The central painting was a starry sky, because in the 19th century, no calvary was conceived without a starry sky. A wooden tabernacle, highly ornate in the 18th-century taste. An inscription on the inside reads: "Fait par moi, A.Leblanc, maître menuisier à Nantes, ce 28 août 1852". The Louis XV period was the golden age of the parish of Saint-Jean Baptiste. Speaking of this altarpiece, Canon Russon writes: "the whole, painted in vivid colors, is imposing in its grace and majesty, with its six columns of Corinthian capitals embellished with volutes, with its chubby cherubs' heads, with its vases, from which blazing flames escape. This is the noble and pleasing order of the Grand Siècle The choir also features a stone credenza in the side wall. It dates back to the 14th century. Above, a large Christ by the Spanish school, probably from the 17th century, stretches out his arms widely, in contrast to the Jansenist-inspired Christs. The middle of the high altar is adorned with the Maltese cross, a reminder of the long presence of the Templars and their successors on the Prigny site. The same altar is surmounted by three mirrors: one above the tabernacle and the other two at either end. Their purpose was to multiply the luminary before the advent of electricity. Such mirror altars are rare. There is another at St-Aignan-de-Grand-Lieu. They are more common in Normandy. At the back of the church hangs a Viking anchor, buried near the church before the Normans left in 938, and found with three others at the end of the 19th century... The two side altars are in the same style and date from the same period, the 18th century. The one on the left, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, features a classical polychrome stone altarpiece, but the four Corinthian columns are adorned at their bases with foliage flowers and cherubs holding garlands of fruit in their mouths. The side niches house a Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus (two separate statues forming a single group) and a Saint Germain. The altar is surmounted by a polychrome wooden Virgin of Normandy, dating back to the time when the Bay of Bourgneuf supplied salt to the king's granaries in Rouen. It's characterized by a large head, a tall, ugly "grandillet" baby Jesus (protruding ears, narrow head), and a lack of maternal gaze between mother and son. Finally, the Virgin's veil is short. The wiggle would indicate a 14th-century style. According to specialists, however, this statue dates from an earlier period, probably the late 13th century, when the Bay of Salt flourished. Was it sculpted in Normandy, or by a Norman artist? We can't say. This statue was restored in 1966 by the Beaux-Arts. he right-hand altarpiece is renowned for its two statues, one of Saint Augustine at the top, Saint Guénolé on the right and Saint Antoine de Padoue on the left. Saint Guénolé was the founder of the Landévennec abbey near Brest in the 5th century. In the Middle Ages, this Breton abbot - whose name means "all white" - was the patron saint of the salt workers in the Guérande region. As relations were continuous between this salt country and our bay, the salt workers of the Pays de Retz also took Guénolé as their patron saint. But in Prigny they didn't speak Breton. So Guénolé or Gwénolé became Guinolet. This is why ancient texts about our parish always mention Saint Guinolet. He is invoked by young girls looking for a husband. By pricking the saint's foot, the young lady is sure to find her soulmate. Extract from Emile Boutin's book "Les Moutiers en Retz", on sale at the Moutiers-en-Retz tourist office.