Le Mont-Saint-Michel is an island commune in Normandy, France. It is located
about one kilometre (0.6 miles) off the country's northwestern coast, at the
mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. 100 hectares (247 acres) in size, the island has a population
of 44 (2009)
The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times and since the 8th
century AD has been the seat of the monastery from
which it draws its name.
Its unique position — on an island just 600 meters from land — made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey, but defensible as an incoming
tide stranded, drove off, or drowned, would-be assailants.
Its unique position — on an
island just 600 meters from land — made it accessible at low tide to the many pilgrims to its abbey, but
defensible as an incoming tide stranded, drove off, or drowned, would-be
assailants. The Mont remained unconquered during the Hundred Years' War; a small garrison
fended off a full attack by the English in 1433. The reverse benefits of its natural defense were not lost on Louis XI, who turned the
Mont into a prison. Thereafter the abbey began to be used more regularly as a
jail during the Ancient Regime.
History:
It was at the request of the Archangel Michel
« chief of the celestial militia » that Aubert, Bishop of Avranches
built and consecrated a small church on the 16th October 709. In 966 a
community of Benedictines settled on the rock at the request of the Duke of
Normandy and the pre-Romanesque church was built before the year one thousand.
In the 11th century, the Romanesque abbey church was founded over a set of
crypts where the rock comes to an apex, and the first monastery buildings were
built up against its north wall.
In the 12th century, the Romanesque monastery buildings were extended to the
west and south.
In the 13th century, a donation by the king of France, Philip Augustus, in the
wake of his conquest of Normandy, enabled a start to be made on the Gothic
section of the "Merveille ": two three-storey buildings, crowned by
the cloister and the refectory.
In the 14th century, the Hundred Years War made it necessary to protect
the abbey behind a set of military constructions, enabling it to hold out
against a siege lasting 30 years.
In the 15th century, the Romanesque chancel of the abbey
church, broken down in 1421 was replaced by the Gothic Flamboyant chancel.
With the celebration of the monastic's 1000th anniversary, in
the year 1966 a religious community moved back to what used to be the abbatial
dwellings, perpuating prayer and welcome the original vocation of this place.
Friars and sisters from "Les Fraternités Monastiques de Jerusalem"
have been ensuring a spiritual presence since the year 2001.
At the same time as the abbey was developing a village grew
up from the Middle Age. It flourished on the south-east side of the rock
surrounded by walls dated for the most part from the Hundred Years war. This
village has always a commercial vocation.
A MAGICAL ISLAND TOPPED BY A GRAVITY-DEFYING
MEDIEVAL MONASTERY, THE MONT-SAINT-MICHEL COUNTS AMONG FRANCE’S MOST STUNNING
SIGHTS. FOR CENTURIES ONE OF EUROPE’S MAJOR PILGRIMAGE DESTINATIONS, THIS HOLY
MOUNT IS NOW A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE, AS IS ITS BREATHTAKING BAY, MORE THAN 3 MILLION PEOPLE VISIT IT EACH YEAR
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