Lann Justice cross 

Located on a promontory, the Lann Justice (land of justice) area is a reminder of the gallows that stood here during the Ancien Régime. Plouay was also the seat of the high justice of the Lordship of Pontkalleg, located in Berné. It was exercised over all subjects living in his fiefdom, including a large part of the parish of Plouay. Judgments were handed down on Mondays, market days, in the Justice Auditorium on the upper floor of Les Halles, now Place du Marché. It included a prison, located to the south of the church, near the 1594 dwelling known as “Relais du Marquis”. 

Punishments ranged from straitjacketing to prison, and for the most serious cases, a death sentence. The executions took place on the hill, where lordship’s pillars of justice and gallows were located. They were located not far from the present-day cross at Lann Justice, dating from the 17th century, and along the first access road to the village of Plouay. Each high court had its own gallows on a hill close to a main road, to remind the population of the risks incurred by criminals. Most of them can be seen on old maps and are easily identifiable by the names they still bear today, such as Lann Justice or Kerpotence.