Religious heritage and the re-enchantment of the world in brittany

This article explores the changing uses of, attitudes toward, and meanings of religious monuments in contemporary Brittany. I argue that the transformed relationship between people and religious art and architecture in this region corresponds to the shift between memory and history, as described by historian Pierre Nora. Increasingly divorced from “lived religion,” religious buildings are now valued as sites where a material connection with the past can be maintained. Moreover, these buildings continue to perform sacred (but not necessarily Roman Catholic) functions as sites anchoring collective memory and embodying immortality, both for Bretons and for people from diverse cultural backgrounds.