page_title: Pencran Parish close
section_title: The porch at Pencran
hierarchical_section_title: Pencran Parish close / The porch at Pencran
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Entrée du porche de l'église Notre-Dame de PENCRAN
context_page_description: The Pencran Parish close is located at Pencran in the arrondissement of Brest in Brittany in north-western France. The Notre-Dame church, the sacristy, the two calvaries, the ossuary and the surrounding wall are a listed historical monument since 1990. Records show that there has been a religious building in Pencran since the 14th century, and in 1353 there was mention of a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Until the French Revolution the parish of Ploudiry covered an area from Loc-Eguiner to Pencran, but it was in 1801 that Pencran became an independent parish.
context_section_description: This dates to 1553 and is decorated with an  angel who holds a banner inscribed
  LE 15 JOVR DE MARS L'AN 1553 FVT FONDE CESTE CHAPELLE AU NO(M)DE DIEV ET DE MADAME SAI(N)CTE APPOLINE DE PAR HERVE K(ER)JAHES ET GVILL(AVME)E BRAS FABRIQVES DE LAD.CHAPEL
  According to local records Hervé Kerahès and Guillaume Bras were local builders. The porch comprises an entrance arch decorated with vine leaves and bunches of grapes as well as carvings of small animals and people eating grapes and playing a trumpet. In the external voussure of the entrance arch, the carvings start on the bottom left with a lion and, after the floral decoration, ends on the right with a dragon. In the centre there is a human head, wearing a hat and nibbling at grape seeds. In the interior voussure, the sculptors repeat the same pattern but a pig replaces the dragon. A large tympanum is located over the arch, with a nativity scene depicting the Virgin Mary and Joseph on either side of the baby Jesus who lies on a bed of straw whilst above him the heads of a cow and a donkey protrude from the wall. This group is situated to the right hand side of the tympanum suggesting that there had been another sculpture on the left side perhaps depicting another part of the nativity scene. (The piédroit is the stone at the bottom part of an arch up until the point when the arch starts to curve; the stones in the curved part of the arch are called voussures and it was common practice at the time to carve both stones.) The double band of piédroits and voussures in the Pencran porch arch portray scenes from the Book of Genesis. In the first nine stones and alternating between left and right we see a depiction of the temptation of Adam and Eve with a tree around which is a coiled snake who offers Eve the forbidden fruit. Move to the right hand side and we see an angel brandishing a sword and throwing the couple out of Paradise which is symbolised by a tree laden with leaves. In other scenes we see Cain and Abel lighting sacrificial fires. Cain fails to get his fire burning and the smoke blows back into his eyes which he shields with his right hand. Abel is more successful with his fire. We also see Cain murdering his brother. In other piédroits, there is a depiction of Noah's ark carrying Noah and his family and animals and of Noah picking grapes. He lifts his tunic to create a fold so that he can carry as many grapes as possible. A smaller carving shows Noah intoxicated having overdone the sampling of his wine! The outside of the porch is decorated in the Flamboyant Gothic style, the buttresses topped with pinnacles. After the biblical scenes from the Book of Genesis, there are depictions in the final two piédroits of the four evangelists with their usual attributes, with Mark and John on the left and Luke and Matthew on the right. We then have the voussures and in the double band are twenty one carvings depicting angels playing a variety of instruments; a veritable "Heavenly Host". Above the tympanum there is a small statue of the Virgin Mary with child. The remaining statuary can be found in the buttress niches. In the niche to the far left of the left buttress, there is a small version of the Virgin Mary before the cross. Her hands are clasped in prayer and she wears a veil. The right side buttress has Saint Suzanne in the central niche with another Virgin Mary and child in the first niche. Saint Suzanne reads a book and holds a folded scroll. In the final niche we have a depiction of Saint Ann teaching the Virgin Mary to read. Inside the church porch are statues of Christ and each of the apostles stood on a richly decorated domed dais.
caption: View of the south porch. In the tympanum we see the Nativity scene and we can see Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden in the first piédroit on the entrance's right.
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