Chapel of Thabor
The Chapel of the Carmelites of Rennes is of notable importance in the religious heritage of the 19th century in Ille-et-Vilaine. Leaning against the Parc du Thabor, full of Gothic and Romanesque beauty, the chapel is now undergoing restoration. This chapel currently hosts the Protestant cult.
About this building
The chapel, oriented north-south due to the narrowness of the plot, was preceded by a fairly short forecourt opening onto the street through a carriage entrance. The plan of the chapel is simple and symmetrical, the nave is three ships of five bays. The choir, which is an extension of the central vessel, has a straight span and a five-sided apse. On the outside, an octagonal campanile bell tower, topped with a stone cloister inspired by the chevet of Coutances, is connected to the wall of the central vessel by a staircase housed in a flying buttress. The main facade, opening onto the rue de Paris, is soberly but clearly articulated by the projection of buttresses with several glazes. On the wide double-entry portal, the offending columns, the beautifully crafted capitals, the flat bases with claws, the perfect correspondence of the vaults and the pedestals, bear witness to a great search for rigour, which does not deny the originality, even the audacity of the concave redents, of an archaic character. The rose windows are inspired by the rose window on the west façade of Chartres Cathedral and the portal is a slavish copy of the one on the Montreal collegiate church, except for the medallion adorning the tympanum and representing Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel.
