Hennebont Talhouët Circuit

Passin through Porte Broërec, you enter the walled town of the department after that of Vannes. Surrounding the “Walled town”, it was built between the end of the 13th century by the Dukes of Brittany. The Broërec gate is made up of two semi-circular towers equipped with fire hydrants crowned by a walkway and machicolations. It was formerly equipped with a portcullis and a double drawbridge. Converted into a prison in the 17th century, it houses a Museum where you can discover the history of the town.

After admiring the 17th and 18th century privates houses on the Grande Rue, don't miss the Seneschal's House from the 16th century on your right on Rue de la Paix. Formerly associated with an auditorium, seat of the Sénéhaussee of Hennebont, in which justice was administered, the original building was replaced in 1932 by an Art Deco performance hall. Today it houses a puppet theater, the “shell theater”. The Sénéchal's house is one of the four half-timbered structure in Ville-Close to have survived the bombings and fires which destroyed four-fifths of the city on August 7, 1944.

Built during the 15th century, the Carmes tower, although its upper part was amputated, is one of the five preserved towers of the walled. It owes its name to the Carmelite convent installed within its walls in 1384. After the French Revolution, the convent buildings were reinvested by the Ursulines in 1820. Today, this space is occupied by the Lycée Notre-Dame du Vœu.

The promontory offers you a view of the Blavet estuary. We are about fifteen kilometers from Lorient. The landscape reveals the alternation of tides and the meeting between fresh and salt water, revealing mudflats and seaweed at low tide. Taking its source at Bourbriac in the Côtes d'Armor, the Blavet, with 163 kilometers of watercourses, was canalized between 1806 and 1825 and constitutes the southern section of the Nantes to Brest Canal. As far as the gates of Hennebont, bridges, ports, locks and towpaths were built to facilitate the movement of goods by barges. On this hillside once stretched out the Bois du Duc, a hunting reserve. All that remains on the slope are meadows and copses, now maintained as eco-pastures, and a 20th century fountain-washhouse complex.

Opposite, on the right bank, the charming little town of Saint-Caradec grew up around a first church built in the 13th century. It then depended on the feudal motte built further downstream on the promontory, dismantled during the reign of Duke Jean I le Roux at the time of the construction of the Ville-Close on the left bank. Following a series of disorders, the nature of which escapes us, a new church was rebuilt in 1777. In the cemetery sits a remarkable yew tree, which tradition dates back to King Henry IV.

Behind these high walls lies what remains of the former Cistercian abbey of Notre-Dame-de-Joye, founded in the 13th century by Blanche of Navarre, Duchess of Brittany. The House of Confessors, dated 1669, housed the priests officiating in this female community. The National Stud was created in the upper part in 1857 to breed horses for the cavalry and farming. Today it has been converted into a horse museum with guided tours, events and equestrian shows.

On the other side of the Blavet, the Hingair departmental forest extends over 37 hectares. On the riverbank, the village of Hingair still retains traditional houses from the 17th-19th centuries, where one of the old mills belonging to the N.D.-de-Joye abbey was once located.

Part departmental, part communal and part private, the Talhouët wood stretches from the hamlet of La Bergerie to Le Talhouët. This hillside forest is home to local species such as beech and oak. It also conceals excavations and ruined buildings, the last traces of quarrying on both sides of the Blavet. Here, in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, up to 200 workers quarried high-quality blue granite to produce framing stones, paving stones, rubble and gravel. They were used to build the town of Hennebont, the canal and locks, and the railway viaduct. You can still ride along their cobblestones in a number of Breton towns and even as far away as the Champs Elysées roundabout in Paris.

Below, Polvern lock is the 28th and final lock on the Blavet. It is characteristic for its dam, canal and lock keeper's house. River traffic helped to export production from the quarries, which were ideally located close to the towpath. In 1921, they also used the small train from the ironworks upstream. Soon you will see the loading bays that are a sign of this history. They enabled the stones to be brought directly to the station and the national railway line opened in 1860. Along the track, a few buildings still standing are often used by bats, a protected species.

The Gorêts and Grand Barrage locks and dams were installed on the site of the old mills and fishery of the Abbaye de la Joye. On the other side of the river, the Kerglaw Forges were established in 1864 and operated until 1966. There are still many remains of this important industrial site on both banks, an old hydroelectric power station, sheds, offices, engineers' and workers' houses... On the Lochrist side, discover the history of the old industrial site of the Vallée noire at the Ecomusée des Forges and on panels along the heritage walk.

Going up Rue des Meuniers, observe the engineers' housing built between 1917 and 1919 by the Société des Cirages Français, owner of the Forges. Larger than the workers' houses, these pavilions had three habitable levels : a ground floor with three rooms and kitchen, an upper floor with three rooms, a bathroom and toilets, and an attic composed of four attic bedrooms. This Company also built a clinic-dispensary for its staff at the top of the street. Becoming the Saint-Piaux clinic, it was destroyed at the end of the 1980s.

Walking along the edge of the cities, along the stream and along the old paths, crossing the sports and school complexes, you have an overview of the growing urbanization of the town of Hennebont. Until 1965, there were only fields and meadows lined with embankments and planted with apple trees.

The botanical gardens of Kerbihan, were bought by the town of Hennebont in 1958. There are ten hectares of lovely walks for the inhabitants of Hennebont, along its paths, stream and ponds. It boasts plant species from the five continents, high conifers, a beech forest, a bamboo grove and rhododendrons that testify to its age. It is linked to an estate whose residence now houses the town’s services. First belonging to Pierre Le Gouvello in 1673, it was bought in 1869 by Mr. Brunetière who drew up the plans for an English garden planted with redwoods, which are still there. At the end of the 19th century, the new owners, Mr. Chevassu, father and son, continued to expand the diversity of its species.

Hennebont is a historic town that bears the scars of war. On 7th August 1944, German bombs destroyed 70% of the city, including the old blocks. Passing through the streets, you will see mainly buildings from the Reconstruction, built under the leadership of Paul Lindu, an architect from Lorient. Seeking uniformity, he preferred rendered facades with large windows, skylights and slate hip roof dormer windows. He succeeded, especially in the centre around the Place Maréchal Foch, where modern buildings stand alongside the Basilica of Notre Dame de Paradis built at the beginning of the 16th century and the private houses from the 17th and 18th centuries