April 23 and 24, 2022
Dinan has a most wonderful clock tower that caught my attention soon after I arrived in town. My first thought upon seeing it was exactly this: ”Whoa, that’s a tippy tower!” Here is the view that inspired that thought.
In other photos that I took from different vantage points the tippiness is less apparent, but I was very aware of it when I climbed to the top of the tower. These two photos are taken from different ends of the same street, but sadly I do not have an image of the clock face at the front of the tower.
On the bottom level of the tower there is the original set of clockworks, made by Hamzer in Germany in 1498.
A spiral stone staircase led up to a room where town councillors used to meet to discuss civic matters. On the next floor up there was a very entertaining and informative computer animated film that presented some of the history of the town and the tower from the fictional point of view of an old sailor, born and raised in Dinan, who returns home in 1750 after many years at sea and becomes a watchman on top of the tower.
About two thirds of the way up this 46 metre tower, the stone staircase ends and a wooden staircase begins, and at the very top there is a steep narrow ladder for the final climb onto the platform for views all around. Warning, this next collage might make you feel a bit vertiginous!
The views were tremendous in all directions! The image on the left is of the Basilique Saint Saveur (I see the steeple from my apartment window), and the image on the right is looking down to the river valley.
While up here on the tower, I will magically transport you to the interior of some of the principal churches of Dinan. The Basilique Saint-Saveur was founded by a knight who had safely returned from a crusade. Begun in the 12th century, it was not completed until the 16th century and has been built in a combination of Romanesque and Flamboyant Gothic styles. The altar was very elaborate.
I liked the simplicity of a peaceful side chapel that featured beautiful stained glass and a statue of the Virgin Mary, and I also appreciated the fatherly tenderness that is evident in the sculpture of Joseph and Jesus.
In this basilica, the heart of Bertrand du Guesclin, a son of Dinan and hero of the Hundred Years’ War, is entombed in a vase. There is also a statue of du Guesclin in the area which served as the town’s fairgrounds during the Middle Ages.
The next view from atop the tower is of the Eglise Saint-Malo which is just a five minute walk from the Basilica! This second large church also took 400 years to build and its planned steeple was never completed.
Pillaged during the Revolution, the interior was very stark but I appreciated the bareness and simplicity and absolute quiet of the space.
The lack of excess ornamentation helped one to focus on the beautiful modern stained glass, most of which depicted scenes from the bible or from Dinan’s history. There was also a case which displayed some liturgical objects that must have been hidden away somewhere during the pillaging!
From the film in the clock tower I learned that many religious orders established convents and abbeys in Dinan, including the Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Clares, the Ursulines, and the Dominicans. I will point out a few of their edifices to you, as the old sailor did to me in 1750! The large church in the middle ground of the photo, plus the adjacent buildings to the left, was built by the Cordeliers (Franciscans) who first came to Dinan in 1247.
Now used as a private Catholic school, parts of the “Couvent des Cordeliers” were open to the public for an art exposition so I visited here on Sunday. (My favourite photo is of the lovely rose bush behind the old yellow and purple glass.)
This steeple belongs to the 1662 chapel of the Benedictines who arrived in Dinan in 1631 to found their monastery. After damage by fire, the monastery became a college in 1775. It was closed during the French Revolution until 1841 when it re-opened as the College Roger Vercel.
I do not have a view from the tower, but I did visit the Chapel of Sainte Catherine, built between 1661 and 1664 by the Dominicans. Here is a collage of photos from the very beautiful chapel, elegant in its simplicity and with a stunning wooden ceiling.
The convent buildings adjacent to the chapel were taken over during the French Revolution and converted into barracks, then a prison, and then a hospital in 1817. After restorations in 2005, the stately building now contains the library of Dinan. There is quite an expansive esplanade leading down to the old convent lined with sculptures by Dinan artist Roger Vene, including this statue entitled ”Homme.”
Now that our tour of some of Dinan’s many churches is finished, we are back up on the tippy tower. Here’s a somewhat scary view looking as “straight down” as I was brave enough to achieve leaning (a bit!) over the wooden railing.
And here’s the bell, which did ring when I was up here. This bell was recast in 1906 from the iron in the original bell which was gifted to the town by Anne of Bretagne, Duchess of Brittany, in the year 1500, and which range for more than four centuries.
And, finally, here is my favourite photo taken from atop the tower. I have given it the rather obvious (but pleasing to me) name of ”Rooftops of Dinan.”
That Rooftops of Dinan would make a challenging 1000 piece puzzle.
Keep well. Xox
It certainly would! 🙂