MTB track n°10 - Porspoder / Landunvez

Parking lot at Notre-Dame de Kersaint chapel.
This tour runs clockwise.

Kersaint, "village of saints", owes its name to the story of Saint Tanguy and Sainte Haude, in the 6th century. They were the children of Galon du Chastel, Lord of Trémazan, whose majestic castle ruins can still be seen at Kersaint, near the shore.

A modest religious edifice dedicated to the two saints was erected very early on, on the spot where Haude was beheaded by her brother as the victim of a deception. The du Chastel family replaced it in the 15th century with the present chapel, most of which dates from the 16th century. In 1518, the chapel, dedicated to Notre Dame du Vrai Secours, was elevated by the du Chastels to the rank of collegiate church.

The little chapel of Saint-Samson, dating from the second half of the 18th century, offers a marvellous panorama facing the ocean. Below the chapel flows a fountain whose miraculous virtue was used not so long ago. Children were immersed in the fountain to give them strength. The presence of a Gallic stele near the fountain attests to the ancient sacralization of the site. Behind the hamlet, a menhir set into an embankment, against which people used to rub to relieve their rheumatism, takes us even further back in time and reinforces Saint-Samson's healing function.