Place Saint-Sauveur

You’re now in the heart of Saint-Goustan, one of Auray’s most beloved neighborhoods. But before we explore the harbor and its old houses, let’s start with the man who gave the area its name. According to legend, Goustan was a young man from Cornwall.

At the age of 18, he was kidnapped by pirates and forced to serve as a cabin boy on their ship. After being wounded during an attack and no longer considered useful, he was abandoned alone on an island, probably Houat. To survive, Goustan managed to catch a large fish.

But this was no ordinary fish. Each day, he ate part of it, and every morning, the fish was miraculously whole again. The story even says that the rock he slept on softened beneath him, giving him a slightly more comfortable place to rest.

Eventually, he was rescued by a monk named Félix de Rhuys and later became a monk himself. He has since been regarded as the protector of sailors and fishermen and is often shown holding a fish. So it’s no surprise that his name gradually came to be associated with this riverside neighborhood shaped by fishing and navigation.

Now let’s leave the legend behind and turn to the history of the place itself. For centuries, Saint-Goustan formed Auray’s lower town, built around the harbor. Above you stretched the upper town, dominated by the castle of the Dukes of Brittany, which overlooked the river, the bridge, and the boats passing below.

In the 12th century, though, the scene looked very different from what you see today. Saint-Goustan was still just a small settlement of farmers and a few fishermen. There were no rows of houses lining the river, and without proper quays, boats had to wait for the tide and run aground along the shore to unload their cargo.

The real turning point came in the 17th century. The first quay was built in 1615, and a few decades later, further improvements, including two landing ramps, completed the harbor. Little by little, houses began to spread along the waterfront, and Place Saint-Sauveur took shape as the lively heart of the neighborhood.

It may be hard to imagine today, but behind its peaceful, picture-perfect appearance, Saint-Goustan was once a bustling port filled with sailors, merchants, carts, and goods arriving from faraway places.