Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Roncier: A Historic Minor Basilica in Josselin, France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Brittany, French
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Basilica
On this page14 sections
History
Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Roncier is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and parish church in Josselin, France, associated with the Diocese of Vannes. Predominantly Gothic in character, with a Neo-Gothic tower and spire, the church developed through rebuilding from the twelfth century onward and remains a major setting for devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Foundation tradition and medieval rebuilding
Its foundation legend places the beginning of the sanctuary in 808. A peasant working beside the Oust is said to have discovered a statue of the Virgin Mary in a bramble bush. Whenever he carried the statue home, it disappeared and returned to the same bush. He therefore built a chapel at the spot, and a settlement later grew into Josselin. The tradition is materially represented by a sickle attributed to the peasant and preserved in the chapel, together with a fragment of the original statue said to have been rescued from a revolutionary fire and placed in a reliquary.
King Henry II of England destroyed Josselin in 1168, after which the church was rebuilt at the end of the twelfth century. The surviving chancel preserves the visible remains of this phase. During the following century, the false-transept vaulting was added and the chancel was enlarged, continuing the church’s medieval development.
Noble patronage and late medieval expansion
At the end of the fourteenth century, Olivier V de Clisson, a Breton nobleman and constable of France, and his second wife, Marguerite de Rohan, converted the south apsidiole into an oratory and private chapel. Jean II de Rohan, a lord of the area from the same major Breton noble house, directed a further expansion between 1461 and 1470, when the nave and south aisle were built. The north aisle was completed in 1491, and a square tower containing a strong room was erected at its center.
The church’s devotional life also acquired distinctive local traditions. Numerous miracles, including the healing of blind and paralyzed people, were attributed to the Virgin. The pardon of Notre-Dame-du-Roncier, a Breton Catholic pilgrimage and devotional observance centered on a sacred image, became known also as the pardon of the barkers of Josselin. From 1728 until the 1950s, its procession was sometimes accompanied by actual barking. It included a bearer of an iron-shod staff and a halberd, cross-bearers, parishioners carrying local patronal banners, and the duke and duchess of Rohan with the bishop of Vannes, priests, and elected officials. A danse macabre continued in the north chapel until the middle of the nineteenth century.
Repairs, basilica status, and twentieth-century transformation
The upper part of the square tower collapsed in 1705. Repairs between 1731 and 1734 added a belfry above it. Major works followed from 1855 to 1900. The north chapel was arranged during this campaign, while the south chapel, dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch, was transformed in 1890 by the architect A. Lafargue, who also designed its altar and benches. The chancel vault had fallen into ruin and was replaced with a false plaster vault.
Pope Leo XIII granted the church the title of minor basilica in April 1891. Plans for a new tower and sacristy were prepared by René Ménard and Émile Libaudière in 1898 and 1900. The earlier tower and belfry were demolished in 1923. A spire was finally erected in 1949 according to Ménard’s original project, revised with the architect Maurice Ferré. The choir enclosure and two fifteenth-century piscinas, small wall-set basins once used for washing sacred vessels, were listed as historic monuments in 1927. The entire basilica was listed in 1929 and classified in 2020.
Remains
The basilica presents a predominantly Gothic plan formed around a medieval chancel, a nave with north and south aisles, north and south chapels, a south porch, and a sacristy. Later interventions added Neo-Gothic elements to the tower and spire, while older fabric and furnishings preserve successive stages in the building’s development.
Medieval church fabric
Chancel and false transept
The chancel contains the principal visible remains of the twelfth-century rebuilding. Its enlargement and false-transept vaulting belong to the following century. The original chancel vault later fell into ruin and was replaced by a false plaster vault during the nineteenth-century works. The surviving medieval fabric therefore combines early rebuilding with later structural alteration.
South apsidiole and porch
The south apsidiole was converted into a private oratory and chapel at the end of the fourteenth century for Olivier V de Clisson and Marguerite de Rohan. The south porch retains decoration renewed in the sixteenth century, with Renaissance influences probably copied from the west porch of the Basilica of Guingamp.
Late medieval aisles and chapels
Nave and aisles
The nave and south aisle date from 1461 to 1470, while the north aisle was completed in 1491. A square tower stood at the center of the north aisle and contained a strong room. Its upper section collapsed in 1705, and the tower and its later belfry were demolished in 1923 as part of the sequence that led to the present spire.
North and south chapels
The basilica includes north and south chapels. The south chapel is dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch and preserves the altar and benches made for its transformation in 1890. The north chapel was arranged during the major works carried out between 1855 and 1900. Its earlier devotional use included a danse macabre that continued until the middle of the nineteenth century.
Tower, bells, and devotional objects
Bell tower and spire
The present Neo-Gothic spire was erected in 1949 from Ménard’s revised design. The bell installation includes five full-circle swinging bells. Three bells are fixed in the spire and strike the hours. The largest is the 5,000-kilogram bourdon named Marie-Joseph de Notre-Dame-du-Roncier, cast by Cornille-Havard in 1925 and pitched at G-sharp 2. A C-sharp 3 bell of about 2,100 kilograms was also cast by Cornille-Havard in 1925. Other bells include a D-sharp 3 bell of about 1,400 kilograms by Viel-Tétrel of Villedieu-les-Poêles, an F3 bell of about 1,000 kilograms by Cornille-Havard in 1925, and a G-sharp 3 bell of about 600 kilograms by the same foundry and year. An additional C4 bell of unknown weight lacks a swinging mechanism and is unusable.
Legendary relics
The foundation tradition is linked to physical objects and features within the chapel. The sickle attributed to the peasant is hung there and is said not to show the effects of time. A fragment of the original Marian statue is kept in a reliquary after its reported rescue from a revolutionary fire. The legend further holds that brambles growing on the gable could never be pulled away.
