This temple, built on the Saint-Gilles hillside, has been listed as a Historic Monument since March 14, 1988. It owes its name to the friendship between the Cacault brothers and the sculptor François-Frédéric Lemot, initiators and creators of Clisson's Italianate architecture in the early 19th century. Pierre Cacault wanted to build a mausoleum in memory of his brother François, who died in Clisson on October 10, 1805, but he lacked sufficient financial means.
➢ It was François-Frédéric Lemot who helped his friend carry out his project. He purchased the former Saint-Gilles-et-Saint-Brice chapel and its outbuildings at the end of 1808. The buildings are part of the cemetery, which has long been used for the burial of parishioners from all over Clisson, except for La Trinité. ➢ Paul de Berthou states in his work "Clisson and its Monuments" that "...the church of St. Gilles and St. Brice had been large and beautiful, but a lord of Clisson had its proportions reduced because it overlooked the castle too closely and posed a danger to him in the event of a siege."
➢ The remodeled church includes two chapels forming arms of the cross, one dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and the other to St. John the Evangelist, whose brotherhood once sat on this site.
A small bell tower, containing two bells, stands at the crossing of the transept.
➢ Pierre Cacault died on January 29, 1810. François-Frédéric Lemot took over the project and decided that the monument would be dedicated to the memory of the two brothers. In 1811, he acquired land on the Saint-Gilles hillside and commissioned the architect Mathurin Crucy to draw up the plans.
➢ The first project was inspired by Greek temples. Mr. Crucy proposed a plan representing a peripteral temple of the Doric order, without a base, with six columns on the façade, surmounted by a pediment. F.F. Lemot simplified the plan, retaining a "cella" and four Doric columns surmounted by a triangular pediment on the façade. This choice recalls the Temple of the Sybil in Tivoli and is found in other contemporary monuments (the Temple of Friendship in Belz, the memorial monument to the victims of Quiberon in Auray).
➢ The Temple of Friendship was built between 1812 and 1824 on the former foundations of the parish church of Saint Gilles. The side chapels were razed, their foundations later serving to build a small, asymmetrical transept. The old nave was demolished and the walls rebuilt in line with those of the choir, with the entrance door on the side of the current cemetery.
➢ It took several years before the roof was laid and the plastering completed (1824).
➢ This temple was to house the tombs of the Cacaults. Antoine Peccot (1766-1814), a friend of Mr. Crucy, the Cacaults, and F.F. Lemot, had proposed, before 1814, that a dedication be inscribed to the Cacault brothers. The poem invited passersby to remember the talents, virtues, and prodigal benefits of these two brothers. The inscription was never engraved. The tombs were never built because the heirs of the Cacault brothers did not authorize the transfer of the ashes of Pierre and François (buried in Nantes).
.➢ On May 6, 1827, François-Frédéric Lemot died in Paris. His body, repatriated to Clisson on May 18, was buried in the Temple of Friendship.
➢ On September 17, 1829, this tomb was blessed by the vicar of Notre-Dame. From then on, the site was designated: "Lemot Chapel" or "Chapel of the Blessed Virgin." Permission was granted to sing the station mass there on St. Mark's Day, as well as on Rogation Day, and to say devotional low masses.
➢ The monument underwent restoration in 1995.