Locmariaquer, from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

When the Marquis de Robien visited the parish of Locmariaquer, then part of his Plessis-Kaer estate, in the 18th century, many ancient remains were still visible. So many in fact, that he even located the capital of the Veneti in Locmariaquer instead of in the present-day city of Vannes.

Two and a half centuries later, the only visible Roman remains left standing are a few much altered low wall sections.

However, a number of major structures are still visible in the landscape today:

• The "coast line" to the South of the harbour is still aligned with a building that used to overlook the shore;
• Er Hastel (Castle) Hill, just to the South of the village, still bears witness to what must have been a long building erected on the site;
• St. Michel chapel, to the Southwest of the village, is located on top of a hill where wall sections and traces of former Roman buildings can still be seen;
• The village cemetery encroached on the Roman theatre facing the Gulf, between the village and the Table-des-Marchands, at the end of the 19th century, but the cavea and the enclosure wall are still visible.

In their search for building materials, the Gallo-Roman inhabitants probably made extensive use of some of the local megalithic monuments. The Table-des-Marchands excavations revealed how its cairn had already been torn open by this time. As for the cairn which probably covered the large Mané-Rutual dolmen, on the outskirts of the built-up area, its fate must have been even more radical, as the dolmen now lies totally uncovered.

Locmariaquer appears in the records as early as the 9th century, when a village called Chaer became the property of the Saint-Sauveur monks in Redon.

A de Kaer family has been recorded since the middle of the 13th century and a 16th century confession talks about the de Kaer barony and the Plessix de Kaer Manor, purchased by Président de Robien in 1729.

The name of the village (originally a parish and now a commune) refers to a chapel dedicated to Mary (locus Maria), located in the fiefdom of Kaer (as opposed to other chapels bearing the same name like Locmaria-Quiberon or Locmaria-Grand'champ).

The antiquity of the ritual emplacement around which the life of the parish probably revolved, is reflected in the village church, which still includes a number of 12th century Romanesque sections worthy of interest.