Châteauneuf-du-Faou () is a commune in the

Finistère Finistère (, ; br, Penn-ar-Bed ) is a department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.

department of

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period o ...

in north-western

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Geography

Châteauneuf-du-Faou is located in the middle of Brittany, between

Monts d'Arrée The Monts d'Arrée, or Menezioù Are in Breton, are an ancient mountain range in western Brittany which forms part of the Armorican massif. Historically it marked the border of the regions of Cornouaille Cornouaille (; br, Kernev, Kerne) ...

and

Montagne Noire The Montagne Noire ( oc, Montanha Negra, known as the 'Black Mountain' in English) is a mountain range in central southern France. It is located at the southwestern end of the Massif Central at the juncture of the Tarn, Hérault and Aude departm ...

. The town is built on a hill overlooking the Canal de Nantes à Brest, which is the canalized river Aulne. The bridge over this waterway was built in 1638, when

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

was king of France, and is known as the "Old King's Bridge".

Map

Population

International relations

Châteauneuf-du-Faou is twinned with the English town of South Brent, and the Spanish town Chinchón.

Name

The inhabitants of Châteauneuf-du-Faou are known in French as ''Châteauneuviens''.

The Breton language

On November 6, 2006, the municipality launched a linguistic plan through

Ya d'ar brezhoneg (french: Oui au breton, en, Yes to Breton) is a campaign started in the 21st century by the ( en, Office of the Breton language) to promote and stimulate the use of the Breton language in daily life in Brittany, northwestern France. Breton is a ...

. In 2008, 10.4% of primary-school children in the area attended bilingual schools.

History

There is strong evidence that people have lived in this area for thousands of years. A large number of

tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or '' kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones b ...

discovered near the sides of the road from Châteaulin to Carhaix testify to the density of the prehistoric population. Burial sites from the Bronze and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

s have also been found. Roman coins from the reigns of the emperors

Gallienus Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...

and

Aurelian Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited ...

were discovered in 1878. During its history Châteauneuf-du-Faou was given different names in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

and French: * "Castellum novum" in the 12th century * "Castrum novum" in 1217 * "Castrum novum in fago" between 1330 and 1368 * Châteauneuf-du-Faou in 1391. This is Châteauneuf-du-Faou or “Kastell-Nevez-ar-Faou” in the Breton language It translates to "the New Castle in the Country." Castrum Novum, a new fortress, was built by the lords of Faou. They belonged to a branch of the house of Léon. The fortress was seized in 1186 by Guihomarch and Hervé de Léon, and subsequently belonged to the Viscounts of Léon until it was confiscated by John VI,

Duke of Brittany This is a list of rulers of the Duchy of Brittany. In different epochs the sovereigns of Brittany were kings, princes, and dukes. The Breton ruler was sometimes elected, sometimes attained the position by conquest or intrigue, or by hereditary r ...

, in 1420. The castle was slighted in 1440. The town has experienced some riots and wars during its history. The worst day in its history was on 23 March 1593. The

War of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...

which started in 1589 was about to end. Only four months were remaining before

Henry IV of France Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

's conversion to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

with his famous “Paris vaut bien une messe'' ("Paris is well worth a

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different element ...

"). On that spring day, in March 1593, Châteauneuf-du-Faou was invaded by hundreds of armed

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Bez ...

s. Houses were burnt and the inhabitants were murdered. The story is told that a Huguenot soldier seized a holy ciborium and threw it onto the ground. The priest picked it up and swallowed the Hosts, only to be killed by the soldier. This story is depicted on one of the stained glass windows of the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Portes. The Revolt of the papier timbré (or, as it was called in Brittany, the Revolt of the Red Bonnets, did not spare Châteauneuf-du-Faou. Angry

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...

s burned the castle in 1675. In 1438 a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary was found inside an old tree. Looked on as miraculous, the find was celebrated by the building of the chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Portes, a very popular place for pilgrimage throughout

Transport

Châteauneuf-du-Faou had a station on the

Réseau Breton The Réseau Breton (RB) is a , standard gauge, and former , metre gauge, railway in Finistère, France, with a few kilometres of line in Côtes d'Armor, Ille-et-Vilaine and Morbihan. The hub of the system was Carhaix. The metre gauge lines w ...

railway. The station was on the

Carhaix Carhaix-Plouguer (; br, Karaez-Plougêr ), commonly known as just Carhaix (), is a commune in the French department of Finistère, region of Brittany, France.Camaret line, it opened on 30 October 1904 and closed on 9 April 1967.

Art and culture

Notre-Dame-des-Portes is closely associated with the famous artist

Paul Sérusier Paul Sérusier (9 November 1864 – 7 October 1927) was a French painter who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement, Synthetism and Cloisonnism. Education Sérusier was born in Paris. He studie ...

, after whom a road in the village is now named. He was a mystic artist and a founder of the group who called themselves

Les Nabis Les Nabis (French: les nabis, ) were a group of young French artists active in Paris from 1888 until 1900, who played a large part in the transition from impressionism and academic art to abstract art, symbolism and the other early movements of ...

, after the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

word for

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

s. He lived in Châteauneuf-du-Faou for several years. In 1894 he painted an inspiring picture, ''The Pardon of Notre-Dame-Des-Portes at Chateauneuf-Du-Faou'' This painting is now in the Musee des Beaux-Arts at

Quimper Quimper (, ; br, Kemper ; la, Civitas Aquilonia or ) is a commune and prefecture of the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the prefecture (capital) of the Finistère department. Geography T ...

. Sérusier was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, but the traditions and culture of Brittany made him say: The "Pardon" ceremony is an old tradition in Brittany. Randolph Caldecott visited Châteauneuf-du-Faou in 1874 and made sketches of a Pardon which took place in the rain. The Pardon which is celebrated in Notre-Dame-des-Portes at the end of August is one of the most famous in Brittany.

References

External links

Official website
*
Mayors of Finistère Association
; {{DEFAULTSORT:Chateauneufdufaou Communes of Finistère