Photo : Wikimedia Commons
L'Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel
The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel crowns the rocky islet of the same name, on the border of Normandy and Brittany. According to tradition, Bishop Aubert founded an oratory there in 708 dedicated to the archangel Saint Michael. In 965-966, Benedictine monks replaced the canons, which marks the official foundation of the abbey. The tenth-century chapel of Notre-Dame-sous-Terre is one of the oldest surviving remains.
Construction of the Romanesque abbey church began around 1060, with a nave, a transept and crypts with massive pillars. The Merveille, a six-level Gothic complex built from 1211 to 1228, houses notably the refectory, the cloister and the scriptorium. The spire is 32 metres tall and has carried since 1897 a copper statue of Saint Michael, the work of Emmanuel Frémiet, weighing about 800 kilograms.
The history of the place has also been troubled: the Mont was attacked during the Hundred Years' War, between 1356 and 1434. The last Benedictines left in 1791 and the abbey served as a state prison from 1793 to 1863. Listed as a historic monument in 1862, inscribed by UNESCO in 1979, it has been occupied since 2001 by the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem. About 1.5 million visitors walk through it every year.
