Stay on the same sidewalk for about 250m (after the castle). You can see the layers of the old Roman road. Take on the right the path to Trégouët Abbey, and climb the hill up to the Temple.
On this hill, the largest Gallo Roman sanctuary of Brittany stands.
Created ex-nihilo, this monument appears as a tool to serve the integration of the local populations and shows the dedication of the Coriosolites city to the Empire. Its construction, based on the size and the cost, was in two stages and on a few decades between the end of the 1st and the beginning of the 2nd century AD. The Romano-Celtic building, facing east, is organised around a vast sacred courtyard covering 5,000m² (108m x 98m). and is surrounded by three raised porticoes. It is said to be Romano-Celtic since it uses, in its architecture, a polygonal cella (most sacred area of the sanctuary) in Celtic tradition, associated to the Greek system with three porticoes, the whole linked with the Etrusco-Italic constructions through its frontality. The columns are in the Tuscan style, very puridied Roman architectural order.
One entered the sanctuary through the vestibules which allowed to host, control and guide the pilgrims. The sacred area could hold around 5,000 people. The processions and calls of the Emperor representatives took place under the porticoes.
The octogonal cella, (tower originally 22.50m heigh) of which four walls still remain, was the most sacred area of the sanctuary, reserved to the sacerdos (priests) and the elite. The cella housed the tutelar deity's statue, Mars Mullo. The pilgrims couldn't access this area.
To pray to the god, they turned in the adjoining gallery and left their offerings to the God in a small exedra.
The sanctuary was destroyed by fire, most likely between 275 and 290 AD. Voluntary fires caused during pillages by Saxon pirates going up the Rance River, or by peasants revolts against imperial power and social order. Many a building, public or private, walls or enclosures, of the area has been built with the stones from these ruins.
An interpretative itinerary in free access shows you the life of the sanctuary.
Slip into Gaius' mind, our mascotte, and let yourself be lead into the pilgrim's ceremony!
Go around the site and retrace your steps to CORIOSOLIS.

Cross and go on the Mairie parvis. On the left, the Jardin des Antiques offers a perspective on the ancient Roman road and Monterfil Gallo-Roman commercial district.
A Gallo-Roman city is also an important economic power and with its 5,000 inhabitants meant, for this eran an enormous market.
The food products are, for a large part, from the surrounding countryside, and by faraway imports from Italy or Spain such as wine, oil... Some crafted goods are also made here, but a lot of them come from trading with other Gaulish cities or farther away regions of the Empire.
All the discovered objetcs found through search testify to this intense economical life in which currency was the necessary medium of exchange for transactions.
The most important road of the Ancient city crosses the district from west to east ends in the forum. It is lined, north, by a great commercial building with activities and warehouse, caracterised by an imposing portal and, south, by three buildings housing shops, a meeting place (private basilica) and, at the back, the shopkeepers and craftmen's houses. Go down the steps and close your eyes, imagine yourself as a character from the Ancient times walking down this street full of shops and noises.
If you stop now, the itinerary is 2km long, the Coriosolites' sanctuary, called Temps de Mars (Mars Temple) is accessible by car.

Once in Rue de l'Arguenon, turn left, then right in Rue du Montafilan, 1st on the left and then again left to the church. The entry to the church is on the parking lot side (public lavatory).

According to Roman Law, it is forbiden, for hygiens reasons as well as for the sacred nature of the urban territory, to bury people inside the cities. Necropolis to bury or incinerate, "out of the walls", had funerary monuments (mausoleums, stelae). Inside the church, at the basis of a pillar on the south side of the church, one can find a stela erected, to his mother's memory, by a Roman citizen. This Carthaginian woman, Siligia Namgidde, left her country to be with her son in the Coriosolites' city. She died there, age 65.

There used to be little industries in Plélan, and the granite quarries poorly worked because of a relative isolation.
In the 1930's, Plélan, chef lieu de canton (administrative centre of a groupe of villages), had 980 souls.
After the war, the surroundings of the streets, the village centre and the national road are built, changing the village into a street-city.
The village-centre then had 7 bars, 2 bakeries, 2 butchers, 1 cobbler, 1 saddler...
There are manly small shop owners and artisans. There are no entreprises, unlike Plancoët, because of a lack of roads and of port.
In front of the back of the church, the old "Hôtel des voyageurs" can be found, a hotel that had 5 rooms and of a sometimes subversive reputation.
300m from there to the South, at the bottom of the playging fields, used to be a train station for the lign Jugon-Dinan, taken apart in 1938/1939. The train had four 4 wagons (3 for goods/ 1 for travelers).
Plélan was a quiet village, its inhabitants united.
From the 1970's onward, the good situation of the village helps the installation of new inhabitants. Its when the mairie was built with the granite extracted South of the village.
Go around the building by the left and follow the street.

This modern building is situated on a history packed site.
On what to be only marshes, as the streets' toponymy tells us, were, on a mount, three crosses (which can be found at the graveyard later on).
These three crosses were moved for the construction, in 1941, by the German, who were in fact Austrians, of barracks meant to house Tirailleurs sénégalais (Senegalese infantry corps), brought down into slavery to clear the earth and plant over the moors.
After the war, this lugubrious place became a place for celebrations; the inhabitants of Plélan, taking on the habit, as reavenge on the past, to celebrate there the return of the war prisoners.
In 1953, the townhall decided to officialy build the village hall there by enlarging the existing building. Inaugurated three years later, it became renown in the area as so many weddings, bals, bingoes take place there.
Being out of standards, the village hall was torn down in 2009. A new village hall, more spacious is built next of des Garennes and, on these grounds in the centre of the village, between the schools, this cultural centre is built.

Dès Mars 2014, venez découvrir le Centre d’Interprétation du Patrimoine CORIOSOLIS !
Au cœur de cet espace muséographique innovant et ludique, remontez le temps, de l’Époque Contemporaine à la Préhistoire, pour explorer les nombreux patrimoines du territoire de la communauté de communes Plancoët Plélan.
From March 2014, come and discover the Interpretative Centre CORIOSOLIS!
Inside this playful and innovative museographic space, go back through time, from Modern Times to Prehistorical times, to explore the vast heritage of the Communauté de Commune Plancoët-Plélan's territory.
Part of this heritage the impressive Gallo-Roman remnants of Corseul. Corseul, Gallo-Roman capital city as eastly as the first century AD, today showcases formidable testimonies. Admire the archeological collection, the house of a rich Coriosolite, a vast commercial district and the largest sanctuary of Brittany!

We urge you to visit the Interpretative Centre CORIOSOLIS before going on this walk, you'll get a better understanding of the remnants you'll see.

Upon leaving CORIOSOLIS, take the path following the Clos Mulon domus in front of you.

The archeological site of Clos Mulon is at the crossing of the streets, organised according to two main roads : decumanus (East/West) and cardo (North/South), marking the border between the forum's public space and the residencial one, the domus's (unifamilial urban houses).
This site is an open mirror on 4 eraes of dwelling. At the first century of our era, it welcomed a domus (house), made of three rooms. Under the rule of Emperor Claudius (41-54) to take up 600m². In the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, the domus reaches its final stage, to end up, at the end of the 3Rd and the beginning of the 4th century, as thermae (build West).
An interpretative itinerary, in open accès, unveils the rich history of this site.

Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens Church (1876-1878) is designed by architect Théodore Maignan and Réglain company.
It is built with stones from local quarries.
The building is of a Latin cross plan, of which the transept has four chapels and the chevet and wings cut off corners.
The first stone was consecrated September 17th, 1876; the church was brought to worship April 21, 1878 and consacreted by Bishop David, November 5, 1878.

The village-centre of Plélan-le-Petit's village centre maintains a good unity.
The houses, often old shopes, were built with the granite from the local quarries.
Most of them dates back to the 19th century.

The washtub is an important place of the last century in the life of a village, a place to socialise.
Built around 1950, it is restaure with its ladder fish and its lusqh surroundings, or old "Ondine", piece of art made in hommage of the Lavandières by Laétitia Lavieville.
As to the path, in a valley where the playing noises of pupuls can be felt, it is easy to guess the cunicol origin of its name.

A first presbytary was built in 1766 and called "la Fabrique". It is administrated by clerics and seculars.
Often flooded, inaccessible by rise in the water levels, it is replaced by the current building in 1890.
Left after the great tempest of 1987, the municipality chose to rehabilitate it in 2010 as a common house and garden.

After having followed a tasty path, full of chestnuts, you arrive in front of a school
Plélan has a public school (catholic) and a private school. Tradition wanted that girls went to the public school and boys to the private school.
Moreover, around 1950, a school for domestic arts was created on the place of the present supermarket, with the objective of teaching young girls how to keep a household. The obligation to obtain the brevet (national examination) meant the end of the school and pushed the young Plélannaises to go to Plancoët.

This humid area close to the village centre is called "les plantations". It's after the great storm of 1987 that the idea to creat a preserve zone at the beginning of the Montafilan River is born. A rehabilitation project is being lead since 1999: 1200 trees and shrubs are plantes, a walking path, a great swale and panoramic view points are designed.

Nature reclaims her rights.

The graveyard was moved in 1933 to the outskirts of the village. It was first in the parochial enclosure by the church. An odd grave can be found named Nian Koi. It's the grave of a Senegalese man. Indeed, during WWII, the Germans, who were housed in locals homes (no Kommandantur), put to slavery "tirailleurs sénégalais", housed in barracks (the current meda centre) to clear the moor. Famed Nian Koi, suffering of dysentry, rebelled and refused to work. He was killed and the people of Plélan chose to welcome him into their graveyard.

The ossuary dates back to the 17th century. It was incorporated to the graveyard next to the church. The parochial presinct being abandonned, the ossuary in the way of traffic, the Germans wanted to raze it, it was moved in 1941/42. It was a collective grave used before the French Revolution. At the time of the ossuary construction, the graveyard was a living place, a fair where happy moments happen.This ossuary is in granite, of heavy architecture, the roof is made of stone slates and the aperture is decorated with two collars.
In 1861, the Priest of Plélan, Father Morin, wished to bring those three crosses to make a calvary, destined to walks of Fête-Dieu. Therefore, a mound was raised, half-circular, held by a wall with a earth ramp to access it on marshes grounds where the actual Salle des Fêtes is. The three crosses were moved by some twenty metres on the road to Saint-Maudez (current Media Centre). This new place next to an electric transformer was polemical and in 1971, the municipality decided on a new change, by the graveyard.
The two crosses on the sides are called "pattées" (legged), they are latin crosses with the branches wider at the end. They surround the third cross, more curious, in the shape of a Lorraine cross with two cross-pieces, with its shaft slightly curved. The pedestal of these crosses, more ancient, were chosen on the Etrat Path (road from Corseul to Vannes)

Take the same path up to the sign which tell you a quite different meadow.
This is a conservatory meadow: pears for poiré; a drink, close to cidre, heavily consumed in the last century.