Lorient - Upper Scorff - Circuit n° 3

The Tréfaven powder magazine is the oldest building in the town of Lorient, dating from before the creation of the French East India Company. It is the main building of a 14th century chateau, converted to a fortress in 1482 by Louis II de Rohan-Guémené. In the 18th century, the French East India Company stored gunpowder there. Used as a prison during the revolution, the castle was bought by Napoléon in 1805 and assigned to the imperial Navy. The main building was again used as a gunpowder magazine until 1973. The French Navy left in 2002 but remain its owner.

Designed in 1970, this ten-hectare park is the largest green space in Lorient. Overlooking the Scorff valley, it stretched over farm fields, traces of which remain: an embankment with some apple trees and hundred-year-old chestnuts near the lake. Containing more than 600 trees, it also has a lake, fed by natural springs, where coots and duck live. The park is managed ecologically without pesticides or chemicals, partially grazed and its flowerbeds and meadows require no watering.

Following France’s poor results in the 1968 Olympic Games swimming competition, the State launched a tender to build a series of one thousand swimming pools to teach the nation to swim. The architect Bernard Schoeler replied with the “Tournesol” swimming pool, covered but convertible into an open-air pool by opening the dome 120°. 180 “Tournesol” pools were built between 1972 and 1984. Lorient’s pool dates from 1977. As well as looking like a flying saucer, these pools were original in their construction: a metal frame combined with a roof of prefabricated slates comprised of two polyester skins and a foam core for heat insulation.

Created by the town in 1979, 110 allotments for gardening.

The church of Sainte Thérèse was built in 1929 in the regional Breton style, an architecture that “resembles secular Brittany”, according to the words of the bishop of Vannes in 1935, “full of spiritual colours under a serious, austere, modest aspect”. Made of blue granite from the quarry of Quéven, with a reinforced concrete frame, it is topped by a vast slate roof. Inside the spacious, bright nave, is a white vaulted ceiling reposing on marble columns. A huge mosaic brings colour to the choir vault. Building was interrupted by the war but finished with the bell tower in 1957. 

This reservoir built in 1860 was converted to washhouses in 1896, and the water infeed and outflow is still in place

This church was built in 1849 by the architect Zacharie Richard in the flamboyant gothic style: arched porch, decorated pinnacles, gargoyles depicting vice and sin. The interior is richly wooded, with its original pulpit, sculpted by Alphonse Le Brun. The organ installed in 1838 is the first one (Opus 1) to come from the Parisian Cavaillé Coll factory. It is a designated historical monument.

From 1790 to 1808, a porcelain factory produced decorative objects and blue and white dishes that inspired the refurbishment of the square.

It was built in the second half of the 15th century by the Rohans, the nobles of Guémené and owners of Trefaven chateau, probably on the site of an original oratory. Over a crossing point, it was placed under the protection of Saint Christopher. Sober and gothic in style, it is made entirely of granite and comprised of a simple central nave with two semi-transepts that adjoin a later sacristy and aisle. The nave is covered with a blue-painted wood-panelled roof. It opens onto a three-sided chancel with three large windows. The bell tower reposes on nine Doric columns topped with triangular pediments pierced with trefoils and was rebuilt several times in the 19th century. It was rebuilt in the 1950s following damage in the Second World War.