The church of Guimiliau dates chiefly from the sixteenth century. The
aisles and the south porch are Renaissance, richly ornamented by
delicate sculptures representing scenes from the Old and New Testament;
statues of the Apostles. The triumphal arch and ossuary are very
inferior to St. Thegonnec, but the calvary is a magnificent monument,
unequalled in Brittany, richly sculptured and ornamented. It rests on
five arches, and you ascend to the platform by a short staircase in the
interior. Here are crosses bearing the Saviour, and the thieves,
quaintly carved, but with a great deal of religious feeling. The
Evangelists, each with his particular attribute portrayed, are placed at
the angles: and the whole history of the Life of Christ is represented
by a countless number of small figures or personages dressed in costumes
of the sixteenth century. The effect is occasionally grotesque, but very
wonderful. A procession armed with drums and other instruments precedes
the _Bearing of the Cross_; and another scene which does not belong to
the Divine Life, but was introduced as an accessory, represents Catel
Gollet (the lost Catherine) precipitated by devils in the form of
grotesques into the jaws of a fiery dragon emblematical of Purgatory.
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