Pontchâteau The Calvary of Pontchâteau

In 1709 Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort set out to build a great calvary on the heath of La Madeleine near Pontchâteau. For fifteen months hundreds of volunteers, peasants and townspeople, raised a hill of earth with their hands and their baskets. The blessing was set for September 14, 1710. On the eve, the bishop of Nantes forbade it, having learned that the king meant to have the calvary destroyed for fear that an English landing could use it as a fort, and the order to tear it down followed.

Montfort obeyed without complaint. The calvary was rebuilt in 1821, and a park with scenes of the Passion was laid out around it in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Montfort Fathers keep the shrine.

• The CalvaryThe mound and its crosses, reached by the path of the stations.
• The park of the PassionScenes of the Passion built around the hill from the 1880s on.

• April 28Feast of Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort

• Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de MontfortMissionary of the West of France

• Via IncarnationisThe Way of the Incarnation, seven daysDay V, Pontchâteau

About forty-five minutes by road from Nantes.

• Montfort-sur-MeuThe Birthplace of Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort, about 49 miles as the crow flies
• Saint-Laurent-sur-SèvreThe Tomb of Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort, about 65 miles as the crow flies
• Mont-Saint-MichelThe Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, about 87 miles as the crow flies
• SolesmesThe Abbey of Saint-Pierre of Solesmes, about 88 miles as the crow flies