History of the island of Batz : pretext for a walk
Posted by LN, Thursday 23 July 2009 at 10:18 - Islands - Tags
TRUE OU FALSE
The island of Batz was connected to the mainland during the Iron Age (8th to 6th BC) ?
Yes, you could walk there at low tide. Last century, thirty neolithic graves (4000 years old) were discovered by Georges Delaselle, the founder of the colonial garden. He dug a hole, protected by a hedge of cypress and pine trees, on the east end of the island (where the garden is now) to house his exotic plants.
A village is buried in the east of the island.
Yes, the present village (where the ferry arrives) is recent.
Until the 17th century, the village was located on the east side of the island, where are the prehistoric tombs. This place may have been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age, as other traces of human presence were found. In any case, the village is covered by 6 feet of dunes.
You’ll understand better if you go to the chapel of St. Anne. This Romanesque church is half hidden in the dunes.
Its square pillars replaced the monastery built by Pol Aurelian, a Welsh arrived in the 5th century to convert Britain. Towards 530, he created a monastery then destroyed by the Vikings in 878.
At the end of the 11th century, when calm has returned the monks rebuilt a church.
When the sands were threatening, it has been gradually abandoned for the Kernoc’h bay. The ruins of the church have been used as an artillery warehouse shortly before and after the French Revolution. Today a mass in the open air is celebrated for Sainte Anne (Holy Ann) end of July The chapel and the cemetery are listed since 1980.
The island has never sent a soldier to the Army.
That is how the tourist guide Joanne (1884) presents the island. On this island, all men are sailors. The soil is grown exclusively by women. And some of them let their name in the history of Batz.
A native Yves Trémintin began to serve the State as a pilot. Soon, he fought with courage against pirates and lost a leg. He finished his life on his island limping ...
There is also a Portuguese privateer ... Balidar, who hated the English and therefore helped the French during the Revolution ... With his vessel, he was hidden in the channel and awaited the enemy ... The Batziens (inhabitants of Batz) prevented him when ships were in sign and he attacked.
The lighthouse of Batz has 500 steps.
It was built between 1836 and 1852. But you have to deserve it… 210 steps to climb…
Enez Vaz means Dragon Island
No, Bazh means in Breton language stick. And it has no link with the legend of the island…
There once was a dragon ... who was terrible.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, Pol Aurelian arrived in Batz to convert the island. The governor of the island begged the saint to set the island free from the monster ...
With the help of another gentleman, he went dressed in his priestly vestments, to the lair of the beast. There, without being intimidated by the wrath of the animal, he surrounded the neck of the dragon with a stole*. And led him to the sea where it disappeared.
On the north of the island, the place known as "Toul ar sarpent", the Trou du Serpent, still has the claw of the dragon printed in the stone.
The two heroes were rewarded. The gentleman was given the privilege to go to church with the sword to the side. As for Pol, he received many presents : a palace that he turned into a monastery. He also made some more miracles : a spring gushed out and healed 3 blind men, two mutes and a paralyzed.
Around the year 600, he was buried in Saint-Pol-de-Léon.
*The stole is retained in the new church of Batz.
Sometimes in Brittany, in legends, snakes replace dragons (because dragons were frequently linked with fairies and fairies are not working all over). The serpent is also more familiar and therefore more credible. These legendary figures are in any case often a symbol of the pagan religions that have to disappear...
Algae have replaced the trees on the island ...
There were very few trees on the island ... Islanders used algae and cow pats dried in the sun as combustible to cook or heat the houses (Tourist guide Joanne, 1884).
The more difficult was to harvest them… at low tide or in water up to the knee, women pulled wrack out of the sea ... Not always easy ... being a woman in Batz!
Today the harvest is done by tractors
or with scoubidous these strange boats, with long arms that gather laminars on the seabed.
British people settled fortifications on Batz
Yes, there are many vestiges of fortification against the English…
4 batteries (18th C) used to defend the Bay of Morlaix : the Penn Ar C'hleguer one is after the exotic garden, the battery Bilvidic, on the opposite edge and the other two on the remaining points.
There are also remnants of the Atlantic Wall (German defensive system of the Second World War) with bunkers .... But the vegetation today hides them well ....
The island is a paradise for early vegetables and organic farmers
The parcels are sheltered by small walls or hedges and fertilized by seaweed. Potatoes, fennel, rhubarb grow ... with a few weeks ahead… early agriculture. 3 harvests a year, sometimes the collection is done by hand.
Half of the island is grown in organic agriculture.
The island deserves its label…
Read it in french : Les histoires de l'ile de Batz : prétexte à une balade
The island of Batz was connected to the mainland during the Iron Age (8th to 6th BC)By bike or on foot, go and get the answers ...
A village is buried in the east of the island
The island has never sent a soldier to the Army
The lighthouse of Batz has 500 steps
Enez Vaz means Dragon Island
Algae have replaced the trees on the island
British people settled fortifications on Batz
The island is a paradise for early vegetables and organic farmers
The island of Batz was connected to the mainland during the Iron Age (8th to 6th BC) ?
Yes, you could walk there at low tide. Last century, thirty neolithic graves (4000 years old) were discovered by Georges Delaselle, the founder of the colonial garden. He dug a hole, protected by a hedge of cypress and pine trees, on the east end of the island (where the garden is now) to house his exotic plants.
A village is buried in the east of the island.
Yes, the present village (where the ferry arrives) is recent.
Until the 17th century, the village was located on the east side of the island, where are the prehistoric tombs. This place may have been continuously inhabited since the Iron Age, as other traces of human presence were found. In any case, the village is covered by 6 feet of dunes.
You’ll understand better if you go to the chapel of St. Anne. This Romanesque church is half hidden in the dunes.
Its square pillars replaced the monastery built by Pol Aurelian, a Welsh arrived in the 5th century to convert Britain. Towards 530, he created a monastery then destroyed by the Vikings in 878.
At the end of the 11th century, when calm has returned the monks rebuilt a church.
When the sands were threatening, it has been gradually abandoned for the Kernoc’h bay. The ruins of the church have been used as an artillery warehouse shortly before and after the French Revolution. Today a mass in the open air is celebrated for Sainte Anne (Holy Ann) end of July The chapel and the cemetery are listed since 1980.
The island has never sent a soldier to the Army.
That is how the tourist guide Joanne (1884) presents the island. On this island, all men are sailors. The soil is grown exclusively by women. And some of them let their name in the history of Batz.
A native Yves Trémintin began to serve the State as a pilot. Soon, he fought with courage against pirates and lost a leg. He finished his life on his island limping ...
There is also a Portuguese privateer ... Balidar, who hated the English and therefore helped the French during the Revolution ... With his vessel, he was hidden in the channel and awaited the enemy ... The Batziens (inhabitants of Batz) prevented him when ships were in sign and he attacked.
The lighthouse of Batz has 500 steps.
It was built between 1836 and 1852. But you have to deserve it… 210 steps to climb…
Enez Vaz means Dragon Island
No, Bazh means in Breton language stick. And it has no link with the legend of the island…
There once was a dragon ... who was terrible.
In the early centuries of the Christian era, Pol Aurelian arrived in Batz to convert the island. The governor of the island begged the saint to set the island free from the monster ...
With the help of another gentleman, he went dressed in his priestly vestments, to the lair of the beast. There, without being intimidated by the wrath of the animal, he surrounded the neck of the dragon with a stole*. And led him to the sea where it disappeared.
On the north of the island, the place known as "Toul ar sarpent", the Trou du Serpent, still has the claw of the dragon printed in the stone.
The two heroes were rewarded. The gentleman was given the privilege to go to church with the sword to the side. As for Pol, he received many presents : a palace that he turned into a monastery. He also made some more miracles : a spring gushed out and healed 3 blind men, two mutes and a paralyzed.
Around the year 600, he was buried in Saint-Pol-de-Léon.
*The stole is retained in the new church of Batz.
Sometimes in Brittany, in legends, snakes replace dragons (because dragons were frequently linked with fairies and fairies are not working all over). The serpent is also more familiar and therefore more credible. These legendary figures are in any case often a symbol of the pagan religions that have to disappear...
Algae have replaced the trees on the island ...
There were very few trees on the island ... Islanders used algae and cow pats dried in the sun as combustible to cook or heat the houses (Tourist guide Joanne, 1884).
The more difficult was to harvest them… at low tide or in water up to the knee, women pulled wrack out of the sea ... Not always easy ... being a woman in Batz!
Today the harvest is done by tractors
or with scoubidous these strange boats, with long arms that gather laminars on the seabed.
British people settled fortifications on Batz
Yes, there are many vestiges of fortification against the English…
4 batteries (18th C) used to defend the Bay of Morlaix : the Penn Ar C'hleguer one is after the exotic garden, the battery Bilvidic, on the opposite edge and the other two on the remaining points.
There are also remnants of the Atlantic Wall (German defensive system of the Second World War) with bunkers .... But the vegetation today hides them well ....
The island is a paradise for early vegetables and organic farmers
The parcels are sheltered by small walls or hedges and fertilized by seaweed. Potatoes, fennel, rhubarb grow ... with a few weeks ahead… early agriculture. 3 harvests a year, sometimes the collection is done by hand.
Half of the island is grown in organic agriculture.
The island deserves its label…
Read it in french : Les histoires de l'ile de Batz : prétexte à une balade
French