La Chapelle Sainte-Anne de Tharon

The development of tourism and the influx of bathers to the coast at the beginning of the 20th century led to the construction of a place of worship in 1908 in the emerging seaside resort of Tharon: a chapel dedicated to Saint Anne.

⛪ Construction of the Sainte-Anne de Tharon chapel

From the outset of the urbanisation of the Tharon-Plage district, its initiator, Ernest Chevrier, planned to build a place of worship on land donated by 4 owners (Messrs Boismain, du Chatelier, Guillou and Monty de Rezé).
The original chapel, the first plans for which were drawn up in 1906 by François Bourgouin, an architect from Nantes, was built in 1908 in the middle of a moor made up of sand, vines, woods and fir trees.
Blessed in 1909, the church was modest in size, measuring 9.50m in depth and 7.50m in front. It had a single bell that cracked over time.

Since it was built, the chapel has been enlarged six times to form the main church, comprising three naves in the shape of a cross, hinged on the lantern tower of the choir. It may not look it, but the church seats 1,300!
The main architect of this achievement was Abbé Pierre Gicquel, chaplain (priest who serves a chapel) from 1946 to 1959, then parish priest of Tharon from 1959 to 1963.

Marriages and baptisms began to be celebrated here shortly before 1939.
Burials began in 1942, when the Tharon cemetery was opened.


📿 Remarkable features of the chapel


There are two "Christ on the Cross", one dating from the 14th century, which has the particularity of having nails in its wrists, as on the Holy Shroud of Turin, and the other from the 16th century. In the framework of the central nave, opposite the altar, the 14th-century Christ on the Cross has been partly restored: the arms have been redone, but the nails in the feet are original.
Behind the high altar, on the wall, the large 16th-century Christ is of the Spanish school.
The Renaissance statue of Saint Anne (17th century) comes from a destroyed church in Lower Brittany.
The very elaborate credenza is from the 18th century and comes from the former Cistercian abbey of Buzay.
The chapel has two bell towers: a square lantern tower at the crossing of the transept, in the style of the Romanesque abbeys of Tours (or the abbey church of Saint-Sauveur in Redon, built on the same model) and a slate spire above the entrance, resting on the bell chamber whose cross-section is halfway between a rectangle and an ellipse...




💡 Did you know? Traditionally called a chapel, Chapelle Sainte-Anne, which is also known as the chapel of Tharon, became a church in 1959.


Don't hesitate to also discover the church of Saint-Michel.

For mass times, click here.