The Halles of Questembert

Generally covered, the Halles are designed to shelter, delimit and regulate a area of commercial exchange. The market is the privileged place of conviviality where goods and information are exchanged. In the past, drapers, tailors, shoemakers, and farmers met there to sell their goods, which constituted the essential activity of the fairs of yesteryear.

The Halles, restored in 1997, have in fact never been used as much as they are today. They host a large regional market every Monday morning, a market of local products on Wednesday evenings, but also flea markets, concerts and other cultural events. The Halles are classified Historical Monument since 1922. It remains in Brittany “historic” only 5 halles with wooden frame, those of : Questembert, Le Faouët and Rohan in Morbihan, Plouescat in Finistère and Clisson in Loire-Atlantique.

These halls are of a type common from the fifteenth century onwards:
the “island-forming” halls. They constitute an urban complex
isolated on their own, generally located in the heart of
the agglomeration. The roof is said to be “straight hipped“. They are
built according to the most widespread plan, triple
halls: the central vessel or “grand corps de halles” and 2
nefs or “small halls“.

They are of a common type characterized by a construction
entirely of wood of oak and chestnut (local species
requiring little transportation cost), except for the
roofing and pillar bases, which are made of stone in order to
protect the wooden posts from moisture from the ground and from
furrowing. They consist of84 pillars divided into 17
main trusses.

They measure 54.74m long, 15.43m wide and 10.20m high. The roof area is close to 1181 m2 and the floor area 766 m2. They required the use of nearly 160 m3 of wood (frame, rafters and sheathing).