<< Our Photo Pages >> Fontaine de St Goulven - Holy Well or Sacred Spring in France in Bretagne:Finistère (29)
Submitted by pab on Wednesday, 17 December 2014 Page Views: 2740
Springs and Holy WellsSite Name: Fontaine de St GoulvenCountry: France
NOTE: This site is 0.45 km away from the location you searched for.
Département: Bretagne:Finistère (29) Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Nearest Town: Lesneven Nearest Village: Goulven
Latitude: 48.627331N Longitude: 4.307044W
Condition:
| 5 | Perfect |
| 4 | Almost Perfect |
| 3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
| 2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
| 1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
| 0 | No data. |
| -1 | Completely destroyed |
| 5 | Superb |
| 4 | Good |
| 3 | Ordinary |
| 2 | Not Good |
| 1 | Awful |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
| 4 | Short walk on a footpath |
| 3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
| 2 | A long walk |
| 1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
| 0 | No data. |
| 5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
| 4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
| 3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
| 2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
| 1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
| 0 | no data |
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lichen visited on 29th Aug 2022 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4
PAB have visited here
The origins of this fountain and the nearby church go back to the lifetime of St Golven, who was born in the area at the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century, his parents having fled from Great Brittain like numerous other Bretons.
The information signs at the fountain and in the church report that Goulven was born soon after the arrival of his parents on the neighbouring shore. Completely penniless and unable to find any water to slake the thirst of mother and child, his father Glaudan called on God. A spring immediately gushed up at the spot where the fountain now stands.
Goulven helped the Count of Leon Even to repulse Norman pirates with his prayers, and later became a holy hermit and received a thank-you gift of some land from the Count, on which he constructed a church which has been modified several times over the centuries. It was totally reconstructed between the 14th and 17th centuries, when it was a major centre of pilgrimage.
The current renaissance-style fountain monument is surrounded by a wall with granite benches for the use of pilgrims and the sick. Inside the wall on the left there is a built-in sarcophagus, said to have been St Goulven’s bed, on which the sick lie down in the hope of being healed. A niche in the back wall contains a granite statue of St Goulven as Bishop of Leon. On the first Sunday in July, the day of the pardon, a procession comes to the fountain and the priest dips the reliquary containing a bone from St Goulven’s arm into it, in order to renew the miraculous curative properties of the water.
[Source: information signs at the site, visited October 2014]
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