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Welcome to Mont Saint Michel

(Benvenuti a Mont Saint Michel)

(Bienvenue au Mont Saint Michel)

Mont Saint-Michel (in Norman Mont Saint z Mikael ar Mor) is a tidal islet located on the northern coast of France, where the Couesnon river flows, Mont Saint-Michel is a granite rocky island of about 960 meters in circumference located east of the mouth of the Couesnon river, in the department of Manche in Normandy, and whose name refers directly to the Archangel Saint Michael. Before the year 709 it was known as "Monte Tomba". Throughout the Middle Ages it was commonly called "Mont Saint-Michel in danger of the sea" (in Latin Mons Sancti Michaeli in periculo mari). The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel is located on the mountain, and the mountain forms a small part of the territory of the municipality of Mont-Saint-Miche or Mont Saint-Michel au péril de la mer (in French). It currently constitutes the natural center of the commune of Le Mont-Saint-Michel (department of the Manche, administrative region of Normandy); a dash makes it possible to differentiate between the municipality and the islet: according to the official INSEE nomenclature, the administrative unit is called (Le) Mont-Saint-Michel, while the islet is called Mont Saint-Michel.

On the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel

(Sulla baia di Mont-Saint-Michel)

(Sur la baie du Mont-Saint-Michel)

Mont Saint-Michel overlooks the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel, which opens onto the English Channel. The islet reaches an altitude of 92 meters and offers an area of about 7 hectares. The essential part of the rock is covered by the Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey and its annexes. The islet rises in a vast sandy plain.

The busiest tourist site in Normandy

(Il Sito Turistico più frequentato della Normandia)

(Le site touristique le plus fréquenté de Normandie)

The architecture of Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay make it the busiest tourist site in Normandy. Mont Saint-Michel is the third most visited cultural tourist site in France after the Eiffel Tower and the Palace of Versailles, with approximately 3.2 million visitors each year)

World Heritage Site. UNESCO

(Patrimonio dell'Umanità. UNESCO)

(Site du patrimoine mondial. UNESCO)

A statue of St. Michael placed on top of the abbey church culminates 150 meters above the shore. The main elements, the abbey and its annexes are classified as historical monuments by the list of 1862, followed by sixty other buildings, the mountain (rocky islet) and the coastal strip of the bay, which since 1979 is part of the World Heritage List as well as the Moidrey mill since 2007. Since 1998, Mont Saint-Michel has also benefited from a second inscription on the World Heritage List as part of the Santiago de Compostela Routes in France.

Toponymy

(Toponimia)

(Toponymie)

It was originally known as in monte qui dicitur Tumba around 850 (Mont Tombe): the word tumba, "tomb", rare in toponymy, is to be interpreted in the sense of "mound", "elevation." in the forms Montem Sancti Michaelis dictum in 966, loco Sancti Archangelis Michaelis located in monte qui dicitur Tumba in 1025 and, in 1026, Saint Michiel del Mont in the 12th century, in the Middle Ages it was commonly called "Mont Saint-Michel au péril de la mer" (Mons Sancti Michaeli in periculo mari). Its name derives from a small cave-shaped oratory built in 708 (or 710) by Sant'Auberto, Bishop of Avranches and dedicated to the Archangel San Michele. The remains of this oratory are were found and are still visible in the chapel of Notre-Dame-sous-Terre, that is, under the terrace that extends the nave of the abbey.

The Gauls

(I Galli)

(Les Gaulois)

Near Mont Saint-Michel the forest of Scissy, then not yet invaded by the sea, was the seat of two Celtic tribes, who used the rock for Druidic cults. According to Abbot Gilles Deric, an 18th century Breton historian, the sanctuary was dedicated to Beleno, the Gallic god of the Sun (Mons vel tumba Beleni, or "Mount or tomb of Beleno").

Romans

(I Romani)

(Romains)

The arrival of the Romans saw the construction of new roads that crossed the entire Armorica: one of these, which connected Dol to Fanafmers (Saint-Pair), passed west of Mons Belenus ("Monte Beleno"). As the waters advanced it was gradually moved eastwards, until it merged with the road that passed through Avranches.

The Beginning of the Christian Era

(L'Inizio dell'Era Cristiana)

(Le début de l'ère chrétienne)

The Beginning of the Christian Era

The Apparition of the Archangel Michael

(L'Apparizione dell' Arcangelo Michele)

(L'apparition de l'archange Michel)

According to legend, the archangel Michael appeared in 709 to the bishop of Avranches, Saint Aubert, asking that a church be built on the rock. The bishop ignored the request twice, however, until St. Michael burned his skull with a round hole caused by the touch of his finger, however, leaving him alive. The skull of Saint Aubert with the hole is kept in the cathedral of Avranches. A first oratory was then placed in a cave and the previous denomination of Mont-Tombe was replaced with the already mentioned one of Mont-Saint-Michel-au-péril-de-la-Mer.

The Benedictine Abbey

(L'Abbazia Benedettina)

(L'abbaye bénédictine)

The counts of Rouen, later dukes of Normandy, richly endowed the religious that the previous raids of the Normans had made to flee. Mont Saint-Michel had also acquired strategic value with the annexation of the Cotentin peninsula to the Duchy of Normandy in 933, coming to find itself on the border with the Duchy of Brittany. Duke Richard I (943-996) during his pilgrimages to the sanctuary was indignant by the laxity of the canons, who delegated the cult to salaried clerics, and obtained from Pope John XIII a bull that gave him the authority to restore order in the monastery and founded a new Benedictine abbey in 966, with monks from Saint Wandrille (Abbey of Fontenelle). The wealth and power of this abbey and its prestige as a pilgrimage center lasted until the period of the Protestant reform. A village developed at the foot of the sanctuary to welcome pilgrims. The abbey continued to receive gifts from the dukes of Normandy and then from the kings of France.

The Abandonment

(L'Abbandono)

(L'abandon)

During the Hundred Years War the abbey was fortified against the British with a new wall that also surrounded the town below. In 1423 the English besieged Mont Saint-Michel remained faithful to the king of France and the last stronghold of Normandy not to have fallen into the hands of the king of England. For eleven years the mountain resisted the superior English in number of men: definitively defeated in 1434 the English army withdrew. The siege of Mont Saint-Michel was the longest in the Middle Ages. With the return of peace, the construction of the new apse of the abbey church in Flamboyant Gothic style was undertaken in the 1440s. In 1450, the English were defeated at the battle of Formigny and Normandy returned definitively to French rule. Starting from 1523 the abbot was appointed directly by the king of France and was often a layman who enjoyed the abbatial income. A prison was installed in the abbey and the monastery became depopulated, also following the wars of religion. In 1622 the monastery passed to the Benedictines of the congregation of San Mauro (Maurists) who founded a school, but took little care of the maintenance of the buildings.

The Rebirth after the Revolution

(La Rinascita dopo la Rivoluzione)

(La Renaissance après la Révolution)

In 1791, following the French Revolution, the last monks were expelled from the abbey, which became a prison: starting in 1793, more than 300 priests were incarcerated there who rejected the new civil constitution of the clergy. In 1794 an optical telegraph device (Chappe system) was installed on the top of the bell tower and Mont Saint Michel was inserted in the telegraph line between Paris and Brest. The architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc visited the prison in 1835. Following protests over the imprisonment of the socialists Martin Bernard, Armand Barbès and Auguste Blanqui, the prison was closed in 1863 by imperial decree. The abbey then passed to the diocese of Coutances. On the occasion of the millennium of its foundation, in 1966, a small Benedictine monastic community was once again established in the abbey, replaced in 2001 by the monastic fraternities of Jerusalem.

The Tides

(Le Maree)

(Les marées)

The tides in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel are nearly thirteen meters wide on high coefficient days, when the sea retreats at high speed for more than ten kilometers, but returns just as quickly. The established expression is "returning to the speed of a galloping horse". Mont Saint-Michel is surrounded only by water and becomes an island again only at the high tide of the equinox, fifty-three days a year, for a few hours. It is an impressive sight which, these days, attracts many tourists.

The Bay

(La Baia)

(La Baie)

The bay of Mont-Saint-Michel is the scene of the highest tides in continental Europe, with up to 15 meters of tidal range, the difference between low and high tide. The sea then joins the coasts "at the speed of a galloping horse", as they say. The bay in which the rocky island rises is subject to the phenomenon of quicksand, but is above all known for the exceptional amplitude of the tides (about 14 meters in altitude) which, also due to the flat course, mount this very quickly. it has sometimes caused drowning and more frequently inconvenience for cars left parked too long in the lower parts. The tides of the bay have greatly contributed to the impregnability of the mountain, making it accessible at the minimum of low tide (by land) or at maximum high tide (by sea).

Geology

(Geologia)

(Géologie)

The Salty Meadows

(I Prati Salati)

(Les prés salés)

On the coast, dams from the time of Duchess Anne of Brittany made it possible to conquer land for agriculture and livestock. In particular, moutons de pré-salé (rams from the salty meadow) are still bred today, the meat of which acquires a particular flavor due to the brackish pastures.

La Tangue

(La Tangue)

The alluvial material of the rivers, continuously moved by the ebb and flow of the tides, mixed with the crushed shells, gives rise to tangue, a rich fertilizer that was long used by the farmers of the region to fertilize the soil. In the last century, 500,000 cubic meters per year of limestone sands were extracted.

The Forest of Scissy and the Invasion of the Sea

(La Foresta di Scissy e l'Invasione del Mare)

(La forêt de Scissy et l'invasion de la mer)

At the time of the Gauls the Mont Saint-Michel, as well as the rock of Tombelaine, rose within the forest of Scissy and the shore still extended up to more than 48 km further, incorporating the Chausey islands. Starting from the third century, the level of the ground gradually lowered, and the sea slowly swallowed the forest: according to a manuscript of the fifteenth century, a particularly violent equinoctial tide in 709 gave the final blow to the forest.

The Old Access Dam

(La Vecchia Diga di Accesso)

(L'ancien barrage d'accès)

The road dam that connected the mountain to the mainland had been built in 1879. By retaining the sand, it had aggravated the natural silting up of the bay, to the point that the mountain risked one day no longer being an island. Hence the implementation of the project to restore the maritime character of Mont-Saint-Michel.

The Risk of Cover-up

(Il Rischio di Insabbiamento)

(Le risque de dissimulation)

Due to human intervention, the sedimentation created around the road that connected Mont-Saint-Michel with the mainland had disturbed its natural context. If no action had been taken, by 2040 the Mont-Saint-Michel would have become irremediably silted up by surrounding itself with prés salés (brackish meadows). To avoid this, in 2005 work began on the great project for the restoration and conservation of this treasure of humanity.

The 2005 Restoration Project

(Il Progetto di Ripristino del 2005)

(Le projet de restauration de 2005)

After about ten years of construction, from 22 July 2014 visitors can finally reach the Mont via the new access created by the Austrian architect Dietmar Feichtinger. The new bridge-walkway on pylons allows the water to circulate freely and, as soon as the tide coefficient exceeds 110, allows the Mont to regain its maritime character. The bridge was designed to completely blend in with the surrounding landscape. The pylons of the bridge, made up of a solid steel core covered with a thin layer of anti-corrosion concrete, support the two pedestrian paths covered in oak staves and the central part reserved for the circulation of shuttles. To access the Mont, in fact, you have to park in the designated area and take the free shuttle or take a walk. After the great tides of 2015, the first weekend of April recorded one of the highest tides of the year (coefficient 118) and Mont-Saint-Michel regained its island character for a few hours. From here the Tour de France 2016 started

The bridge-walkway

(Il Ponte-passerella)

(Le pont-passerelle)

The access dam to Mont Saint-Michel, built in 1880, retained the sand and aggravated the silting up of the bay, risking to make the rock lose the nature of an island: to prevent it, its replacement with suspended walkways was planned. According to some calculations, the Monte, without interventions, would have found itself annexed to the mainland around 2040.

The Entrance to the Citadel

(L'Entrata della Cittadella)

(L'entrée de la Citadelle)

You enter the citadel through three successive doors: that of the Avancée which opens onto the shore and the sea. You enter the courtyard of the Advanced and consists of a driveway gate and a pedestrian gate. The pilgrims who entered were controlled by the guards so they could quench their thirst, at the corner of the courtyard stairs, in the drinking water fountain whose tub has the shape of a shell.

The Courtyard of the Avancée

(Il Cortile dell'Avancée)

(La Cour de l'Avancée)

The Cour de l'Avancée, which forms a triangular space, was set up in 1530 by Lieutenant Gabriel du Puy. Defended by an elevated walkway and a half-moon tower that flanked the openings of the next courtyard, this courtyard protected the accesses to the courtyard from the Boulevard. The staircase leads to the former bourgeois gatehouse, a granite construction covered in green essences, which shelters the Mont-Saint-Michel tourist office.

The courtyard

(Il Cortile)

(La Cour)

This courtyard exhibits two bombards, called "michelettes", respectively 3.64 and 3.53 m long, with an internal diameter of 0.48 and 0.38 m, and weighing 2.5 tons, which launch projectiles from 75 to 150 kilograms. These two pieces of artillery are made with flat iron staves ringed with fire by iron collars, also firmly perforated. Mons tradition reports that these guns were abandoned by Thomas de Scales' troops on June 17, 1434 during the Hundred Years War and were intramurally repatriated as a trophy by the inhabitants of the Mount who made them the symbol of their independence.

The Lion's Gate

(La Porta del Leone)

(La porte du Lion)

At the end of the courtyard, the Lion's gate (reference to this animal engraved on a coat of arms bearing the coat of arms of Abbot Robert Jollivet) opens onto the courtyard of the Boulevard built in 1430 by Louis d'Estouteville, captain of Mont-Saint-Michel ( 1424-1433) and governor of Normandy. This narrow courtyard is occupied by modern 19th-century buildings, including the restaurant de la Mère Poulard and the hotel les Terrasses Poulard, owned by the Mère Poulard group, an industrial and hospitality group that owns nearly half of the hotels and restaurants in the mountain.

The King's Gate

(La Porta del Re)

(La porte du roi)

Originally the only entrance to the village, the King's Gate was built around 1415-1420 by Louis d'Estouteville. It was protected ten years later by a barbican now called Cour du Boulevard. Equipped with a portcullis, it is preceded by a drawbridge rebuilt in 1992 by the architect Pierre-André Lablaude and by a moat filled with water on days of high tide.

The King's House

(La Casa del Re)

(La maison du roi)

Above the King's Gate is the King's House, a two-story apartment that served as accommodation for the official representative of the royal power and charged by the sovereign to guard the entrance to the village. This accommodation now houses the town hall of Mons. The rectangular frame above the carriage door was once decorated with a faded relief. It represented the coat of arms of the king, the abbey and the city: two angels holding the royal coat of arms with three lilies surmounted by the royal crown, below two rows of shells placed two by two (call of the Monte, vassal of the king of France) and for support two fish placed in double wavy bundles (evocation of waves during the tides).

The Grand Rue

(La Grand Rue)

(La Grand'Rue)

The visitor then reaches the same level as the town's Grand-Rue, a narrow street that climbs towards the abbey, winding between two rows of houses that mostly date back to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the century. 20th century (Cantilever arcade, Artichaut house, Saint-Pierre hotel, pastiche of the Picquerel-Poulard family built in 1987 in front of the La Licorne tavern, Tiphaine house which houses the fourth private museum of the Mont and which still belongs to the descendants by Bertrand du Guesclin). The last climb to the abbey door is made by the wide external degree (staircase). 4 meters wide, it was barred halfway up by a pivot door, guarded by a guardian installed in a niche visible on the left. The inhabitants of Mons call this staircase the Monteux.

The Walkway of the Bastions

(Il Camminamento dei Bastioni)

(Le Chemin des Bastions)

The walkway of the ramparts, pierced by machicolations and flanked by seven towers, offers numerous panoramic points over the bay, as far as the eye can see, but also over the houses of the town. The housing blocks are made up of two construction types, half-timbered houses and stone houses, but the coloring of the facades does not always allow them to be differentiated.

The towers

(Le Torri)

(Les tours)

The towers are successively and from bottom to top those of: king's tower, near the entrance; Arcade tower; Freedom Tower; Torre Bassa Basse (reduced in the 16th century to provide an esplanade for the artillery); Cholet Tower; Tour Boucle and its great bastion and place it in Trou du Chat (currently inaccessible) and finally the Tour du Nord

The Corte del Barbacane

(La Corte del Barbacane)

(La Cour de la Barbacane)

A small staircase joins the courtyard of the crenellated barbican on the right, designed at the end of the 14th century during the abbot of the abbot Pierre Le Roy. Equipped with surveillance posts pierced by loopholes, it protected the entrance of the castle to the abbey, consisting of two round towers placed on a shelf, supported by molded pyramidal alleys. The courtyard is dominated by the eastern gable of the Merveille and the tapered silhouette of the Corbins tower that flanks it.

Towards the entrance to the Abbey

(Verso l'ingresso dell'Abbazia)

(Vers l'entrée de l'Abbaye)

Under the low arch of the entrance begins a steep staircase that disappears in the shadow of the vault, which has earned it the nickname of "le Gouffre". It leads to the Salle des Gardes, the real entrance to the abbey. To the west, the second entrance to the Mont, with the fortified complex of the Fanils, consists of the Fanils gate and ravelin (1530), the Fanil tower and the Pilette watchtower (13th century) and the Gabriele tower (1530), once surmounted by a mill.

Religious revival and tourism development

(Rinascita religiosa e sviluppo turistico)

(Renouveau religieux et développement touristique)

From 1878 to 1880 the state had a 1,930 m long road dam built between the Mont and the mainland (in La Caserne) as an extension of the old Pontorson road. This carriageway was used by the Pontorson-Mont-Saint-Michel line and its steam tram in 1899

Pilgrimages and Religious Tourism

(I Pellegrinaggi e il Turismo Religioso)

(Pèlerinages et tourisme religieux)

These developments favored tourism but also the pilgrimage of Mons, pilgrims on their way to the Mont, for the wealthiest, with the famous "breaks à impériale" and "maringottes" which provide the connection from the village of Genêts, either on foot or with the tram.

The Development of Tourism

(Lo Sviluppo del Turismo)

(Le développement du tourisme)

The development of the abbey favors the development of tourism: the annual attendance, from 10,000 visitors in 1860, rises to 30,000 in 1885 to exceed the 100,000 visitors entering the town since 1908. After the Second World War, the train was abolished in favor of the automobile. Parking lots have been set up on the dam for Mons residents and, on the side of the road, for visitors. The tourist explosion took place in the 1960s with paid holidays, the rapid massification of the automobile and the economic boom. Since 2001 the brothers and sisters of the monastic fraternities of Jerusalem, coming from the church of Saint-Gervais in Paris on the initiative of Jacques Fihey, bishop of Coutances and Avranches (1989-2006), ensure a religious presence throughout the year. They replace the Benedictine monks, who gradually abandoned the Monte after 1979.

The Lamb of the Brackish Meadows

(L'Agnello dei Prati Salmastri)

(L'agneau des prés saumâtres)

Mont Saint-Michel is located at the mouth of the Couesnon. On the terrestrial side, already ancient developments of dams have made it possible to obtain land from the sea for agriculture and breeding (including sheep, qualified as "brackish meadow" sheep). Mutton or salted meadow lamb, called grévin, is therefore a Norman specialty, best enjoyed grilled over a wood fire.

Mother Poulard's Omelette

(La Frittata di Mamma Poulard)

(Omelette de la Mère Poulard)

A great media activity, in which the designer Christophe took part with his Fenouillard family, surrounds the preparation of mother Poulard's omelette (from the name of the restaurant located in the village and famous for this specialty). It is made of eggs and fresh cream, whipped generously in a copper bowl with a long whisk at a special rhythm that passersby can hear before being cooked in a copper pan over a wood fire.

Introduction: Architecture

(Introduzione: L'Architettura)

(Présentation : Architecture)

The Benedictine abbey was built starting from the 10th century with juxtaposed parts that overlapped each other in styles ranging from Carolingian to Romanesque to Flamboyant Gothic. The various buildings necessary for the activities of the Benedictine monastery have been placed in the narrow space available.

A marvel 157 meters high

(Una meraviglia in 157 metri di altezza)

(Une merveille de 157 mètres de haut)

Built as early as the 10th century, the Benedictine abbey abounds in architectural wonders built in the Carolingian, Romanesque and Flamboyant Gothic styles. The level of the first step of the entrance to the abbey is 50.30 m asl The floor of the church, cloister and refectory is at an altitude of 78.60 m53 while the neo-Gothic spire that serves as a pedestal for the statue of San Michele is 40 meters high. meters. The height of the pavement, from the church to the tip of the sword of San Michele, reaches 78.50 m, which culminates the mountain at 157.10 m in height

The cult of San Michele

(Il culto di San Michele)

(Le culte de San Michele)

The cult of the Archangel Michael developed around the fifth century within a context of archaic religiosity, [1] in which the veneration of those saints perceived as similar to the deities of Norse ancestry of the Lombard tradition was widely followed and made Mont Saint- Michel one of the main pilgrimage destinations of Christianity over the centuries. It is in fact one of the major European places of worship dedicated to the Archangel Michael, together with the analogous English abbey of St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall, the famous Sacra di San Michele in Val di Susa and the Sanctuary of San Michele Arcangelo on the Gargano.

The Abbey Visiting Circuits

(I Circuiti di Visita dell'Abbazia)

(Les Circuits de Visite de l'Abbaye)

level 1: the external Grand Degré, a staircase of 100 steps, gives access to the courtyard of the Châtelet; under the low arch of its entrance begins the staircase of the Gouffre, which leads to the Porterie or room of the Guards; chaplaincy (ticket office); level 3: the Grand Degré interior, in 90 steps, leads to the Saut-Gautier room (reception, models) and to the churchyard (panoramic terrace); abbey church; cloister; refectory; level 2: descent via the Maurist staircase; guest room; Chapel of Santa Maddalena; crypt of the Great Pillars; Chapel of San Martino; ossuary with gazebo and squirrel wheel; Chapel of Saint-Etienne; south-north tunnel; walk of the monks (view of the Weatherlight room and the Devil's Cell); Hall of the Knights; staircase to level 1: cellar (shop); exit through the gardens and the north facade of the abbey.

Level 1

(Livello 1)

(Niveau 1)

The external Grand Degré, a staircase of 100 steps, gives access to the courtyard of the Châtelet; under the low arch of its entrance begins the staircase of the Gouffre, which leads to the Porterie or room of the Guards; chaplaincy (ticket office)

Level 2

(Livello 2)

(Niveau 2)

Descent via the Maurist ladder; guest room; Chapel of Santa Maddalena; crypt of the Great Pillars; Chapel of San Martino; ossuary with gazebo and squirrel wheel; Chapel of Saint-Etienne; south-north tunnel; walk of the monks (view of the Weatherlight room and the Devil's Cell); Hall of the Knights

Level 3

(Livello 3)

(Niveau 3)

The internal Grand Degré, in 90 steps, leads to the Saut-Gautier room (reception, models) and to the churchyard (panoramic terrace); abbey church; cloister; refectory

Stairway to level 1

(Scala al livello 1)

(Escalier au niveau 1)

Cellar (bookstore); exit through the gardens and the north facade of the abbey.

Collegiate church of Saint-Michel in the 9th and 10th centuries

(Chiesa collegiata di Saint-Michel nel IX e X secolo)

(Collégiale Saint-Michel aux IXe et Xe siècles)

During the first century of their settlement, the canons of Mont-Saint-Michel proved to be faithful to the mission that linked them to the cult of the Archangel Saint Michael: their mountain became a place of prayer, study and pilgrimage, but the of stability experienced by Neustria during the reign of Charlemagne gave way, on the death of the emperor, to a period of great disorder. While the rest of Gaul suffered the barbarian invasions, religion and science found refuge and asylum in the diocese of Avranches, and especially in Mont-Saint-Michel.

The Viking Raids

(Le Incursioni Vichinghe)

(Les raids vikings)

Taking advantage of the disunion of Charlemagne's nephews, the Viking incursions, previously contained, regain new vigor. The events of this period did not at first suspend the pilgrimages of Mons of which this venerated rock became the center. The Vikings reached Mont-Saint-Michel-au-péril-de-la-Mer in 847 and sacked the collegiate church. During other Viking raids, it appears that the canons of the Mount have not left their sanctuary. Perhaps it already serves as a fortified place or is protected because it falls within the area of influence of the Count of Rennes who negotiated an alliance with the Vikings. In 867, the king of western France Charles the Bald, unable to defend his western marches, signed the Treaty of Compiègne with the king of Brittany Solomon in which he ceded the Cotentin, Avranchin was not part of the treaty but it is likely that in reality it belonged to the Bretons or who had already taken over it. However, the Mont remains in the diocese of Avranches, a suffragan of the archdiocese of Rouen. The Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, concluded in 911 between Charles the Simple and the Viking jarl Rollon, gave birth to the "March of Normandy". Rollon was baptized and gave the mountain monks his Ardevon land, assuring them of his constant protection. In 933 Guillaume Longue-Épée, son and successor of Rollon, recognized the authority of King Raoul of France, who granted him Cotentin and Avranchin up to La Sélune, the border between Rennais and Avranchin. Mont-Saint-Michel-au-péril-de-la-Mer then passed under Norman control, the old Neustria border was re-established on the Couesnon, the traditional limit of the diocese of Avranches. Guillaume Longue-Épée continues the restoration policy of the monasteries inaugurated by his father.

Foundation of the Benedictine abbey (965 or 966)

(Fondazione dell'abbazia benedettina (965 o 966))

(Fondation de l'abbaye bénédictine (965 ou 966))

The rapid development of the wealth of the abbey of Saint-Michel ended up constituting a serious obstacle to its good functioning, and also to its religious vocation. Equipped with the means to satisfy their passions, the canons spent the riches derived from the piety of the princes on pleasures, while the church remained deserted or was frequented only by low-paid clerics. The nobles of the town sought to obtain the benefits of the rich abbey to spend them better in the pleasures of the table, the world and hunting, where their existence now passed.

The Duke Riccardo

(Il Duca Riccardo)

(Le Duc Ricardo)

When Richard I "fearless", son of Guillaume Longue-Épée, succeeded him as Duke of Normandy, he tried to solve the problem by having the canons appear before him to reproach them for their excesses and remind them of the holy character of the abbey. After trying, in vain, to bring them back to the regularity of religious life, with grievances, prayers and threats, Richard decided, after the approval of Pope John XIII and King Lothair, to replace the collegiate du Mont with a monastery (a cenobium) making you erect Benedictines to replace the canons of Sant'Auberto, as mentioned in the Introductio monachorum ("the settlement of the monks"), a treatise composed around 1080-1095 by a monk of Mont-Saint-Michel who tries to defend the thesis of the monastery's independence from temporal power.

The arrival of the Benedictines

(L’arrivo dei Benedettini)

(L'arrivée des Bénédictins)

After going to Avranches, followed by a large procession of prelates and lords and thirty monks from the nearby Norman abbeys (monastery of Saint-Wandrille, Saint-Taurin of Évreux and Jumièges), Richard sends one of the officers of his court with several soldiers to Mont-Saint-Michel, to notify the canons of his orders: they must submit to the austerities of monastic life by wearing the habit of Saint Benedict or leaving the Mont. Only one submitted, while all the others abandoned the place, leaving Abbot Maynard I, who came from the Abbey of Saint-Wandrille, to establish the Benedictine government there. The replacement of the canons with the Benedictine monks took place in 965 or 966, the year chosen as that of the foundation of the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. Since then, the Dukes of Normandy wanted to make Mont one of the great pilgrimage centers of Christianity and started extensive construction sites. It was the beginning of the glorious hours for the abbey which would be directed by forty-one Benedictine abbots, from 966 to 1622 (date on which the abbey joined the congregation of Saint-Maur, whose religious brought about a renewal of monastic life and avoided the ruin of the place), reigning at the Mount over souls and bodies.

The Building Materials

(I Materiali da Costruzione)

(Les matériaux de construction)

It was these first Benedictine monks who endowed the abbey with the pre-Romanesque double-nave church of "Notre-Dame-sous-Terre", then they had the nave of the abbey church built from 1060, including the crossing of the transept on top of the rock. Since the island of Mont is too small to host a stone quarry, the stones used come from the outside: Caen stone whose tenderness favors the execution of very detailed sculptures (frieze of the arcades and pendentives of the cloister) and above all granite that it comes from the cave of the Chausey islands where it is dug into the rock by stonecutters, transported by sea (blocks pulled by small boats or barges, by means of hawsers and winches operated at high tide) and assembled in blocks sealed by masons. More precisely, it is a granodiorite with a bluish-gray hue, grainy texture, fine-medium grain, with a dominant white mica. The surmicee enclaves, dark in color, are abundant. These enclaves are rich in black micas which contain iron and whose alteration causes a "rust" type oxidation, thus forming brownish golden spots. The main paragenesis of this granodiorite includes: feldspar (53.5%) of which 38.5% white plagioclase of which 38.5% white to gray-blue plagioclase (oligoclase-andesine) and 15% of white or pink potassium feldspar (microclina); quartz, glassy gray (31%); biotite, black flake mica (14.5%) 25. This granite was used, among other things, for the construction of the Cotentin villas, London sidewalks and for the reconstruction of Saint-Malo (sidewalks, quays) in 1949.

The Norman Conquest

(La Conquista Normanna)

(La conquête normande)

Between the year 1009 and about 1020, the land between Sélune and Couesnon was conquered by the Bretons, definitively making Mont Saint-Michel a Norman island. These conflicts did not prevent the Dukes of Brittany Conan le Tort, who died in 992, and Geoffrey I, who died in 1008, from being buried as benefactors in Mont-Saint Michel. This conquest by the Norman kings will be decisive for the future of the abbey. In fact, the dispute between the Catholic Church and the descendants of the Vikings remains alive, since for centuries the men of the North have sacked, plundered and systematically destroyed the monasteries along their path. Normandy is also entrusted to the sovereign Rollon on condition that he is baptized. The new masters of Normandy are therefore eager to engage the Church to demonstrate that they have become good Christians, an essential element both in relations with their populations and in those with the crown of France. The financing of monasteries and churches, and in particular of the abbey of Mont Saint Michel, therefore offers a perfect opportunity to redeem his image and show himself as a defender and promoter of the Christian religion in their territory. The rise of the Monte under Norman sovereignty will therefore be the result of very political issues

A Translation Center in the 12th century

(Un Centro di Traduzione nel XII secolo)

(Un centre de traduction au XIIe siècle)

In the first half of the 12th century the Benedictines of Mont-Saint-Michel would have had, according to various historians, a great influence on the intellectual development of Europe by translating Aristotle directly from ancient Greek to Latin; the oldest of the manuscripts of Aristotle's works, in particular the Categories, dates back to the 10th and 11th centuries, that is, before the time when other translations from Arabic were made in Toledo, or in Italy. "[...] The library of Mont-Saint-Michel in the twelfth century included texts by Cato the Elder, Plato's Timaeus (in Latin translation), various works by Aristotle and Cicero, extracts from Virgil and Horace ..." - Régine Pernoud, To end the Middle Ages, ed. Threshold, coll. Points of History, 1979, p. 18. - Mont-Saint-Michel then reached its peak with Abbot Robert de Torigni, private adviser to the Duke of Normandy, Henry II of England.

13th century

(XIII° secolo)

(13ème siècle)

In 1204, after the decline of John Without Earth (Jean-sans-Terre), the king of France Philip Augustus having recognized, at a later time, Arthur of Brittany as the successor of King Richard the Lionheart, undertakes to seize the fiefs of the Duke of Normandy. Meanwhile, Jean-sans-Terre assassinates his grandson Arthur and then devastates Brittany.

The massacre of Guy de Thouars

(Il massacro di Guy de Thouars)

(Le massacre de Guy de Thouars)

Having crossed the Normandy border with an army to carry out this judgment, his ally, Guy de Thouars, the new Baillister Duke of Brittany, throws himself on Avranchin at the head of a Breton army. Mont-Saint-Michel was the first point towards which Guy de Thouars' efforts headed before recapturing Avranchin and Cotentin. Unable to protect the city, the palisades were swept away in shock, the city was sacked and the people of Mons massacred, regardless of age or gender. The Breton attack broke into the monastery's fortifications: after long and futile efforts, Guy de Thouars, desperate to take control of a desperately defended enclosure, retreated, delivering the city to fire. The disaster developed with such violence that the flames, rushing towards the top of the mountain, overflowed on the abbey, of which almost all the buildings were reduced to ashes. Only the walls and vaults resisted and escaped this conflagration. He then loots Avranches Cathedral and continues his race to conquer Avranchin and Cotentin.

The reconstruction of Philip Augustus

(La ricostruzione di Filippo Augusto)

(La reconstitution de Philippe Auguste)

Philip Augustus deeply saddened by this disaster and, wanting to erase the traces of this disgrace, he sent the Abbot Jordan a large sum of money destined to repair these devastations. It was the abbots Jourdain and Richard Tustin who surrounded the abbey with a first fortified enclosure. Of these works remain: the Belle Chaise, the Corbins octagonal tower at the end of the Merveille and the northern ramparts, above the abbey wood. The Fanils tower, the Pilette watchtower and to the west the ramparts that surround the access ramp that serves as a second entrance to the Mont, date back to the same period. Rebuilt in the Norman architectural style, with abacus of circular capitals, Caen stone pendentives, plant motifs, etc., the cloister of La Merveille was completed in 1228

Hundred Years War

(Guerra dei cent'anni)

(Guerre de Cent Ans)

Guillaume du Merle, captain general of the Normandy ports, establishes a royal garrison in 1324. The prior of Mont Nicolas le Vitrier establishes an agreement with his monks in 1348 that divides the income into two parts, one for the monastery, the other , reserved for himself, constituting the abbey canteen. At the beginning of the conflict, the abbey lost all the income of its English priories.

1356-1386

(1356-1386)

In 1356 the British took Tombelaine, established a bastille there and began the siege of the abbey, the French bridgehead in English Normandy. Shortly thereafter Bertrand Du Guesclin was appointed captain of the Mont garrison and won numerous victories which made it possible to avert the English threat for several years. The castle with its cantilevered turrets on a buttress, built during the abbey of Pierre Le Roy, at the end of the 14th century and completed in 1403. In 1386 Pierre Le Roy was elected abbot and ordered the construction of the Perrine tower, the barbican crenellated with double access closed by tilting doors, of the Grand Degré and the Claudine tower that watch over it, and of the Châtelet

1417-1421

(1417-1421)

After the battle of Agincourt, the new abbot, Robert Jollivet, had a bastion built to protect the town in 1417, as well as a large cistern dug "into the rock" behind the abbey's apse in 1418 to supply the mountain with fresh water. . In 1419 Rouen fell into the hands of the English. Le Mont was then the only city in Normandy that resisted the occupier. Fearing English power, Robert Jollivet offered his services to the King of England in 1420, but a year later Charles VII appointed Jean VIII d'Harcourt captain of the Monte to face the risk of English invasion.

1423-1425

(1423-1425)

The Mont was then the only site in Normandy still to resist the British who besieged it between 1423 and 1440, establishing a blockade by land and sea and building two bastions on Tombelaine and Ardevon.

The battle of June 16, 1425

(La battaglia del 16 giugno 1425)

(La bataille du 16 juin 1425)

The Duke of Brittany, despite his alliance with the British, is wary of them and of the dangers that the possession of this rock by this country would represent for its provinces. On his order, the sieur Briand III de Châteaubriant-Beaufort, his admiral, Guillaume de Montfort cardinal and bishop of Saint-Malo, secretly equip several ships in this port which are armed by the lords of Combourg, Montauban, Chateaubriand, etc., with a large number of Breton knights and squires, all bent on attacking the English ships. This expedition routed the English fleet (battle of June 16, 1425). When the victorious squadron landed at Mont-Saint-Michel, the besieging troops, fearing a combined attack by the Montois and the Breton knights, hastily abandoned their bastions, leaving full freedom to supply the besieged place. As soon as the British saw the auxiliary squadron depart, they hastened to come and relieve its fortifications. Mont-Saint-Michel was then besieged with greater rigor; all its communications with the beach were intercepted and, at every tide, the garrison of Mons could not try to refuel without the beach becoming the scene of bloody skirmishes. Jean sets up a surprise attack with his ally, Jean de La Haye, and the besieged British patrols are crushed ("more than 200 corpses remained in place") after which the British hide in their forts.

1424-1425

(1424-1425)

Jean d'Harcourt was killed in the Battle of Verneuil in August 1424 and was replaced by Jean de Dunois as soon as he was challenged. The monks of the Mount strengthened their defenses with their own funds, bringing part of their religious silverware to be melted at the monetary workshop installed on the Mount by the king from 1420. The British reinforced Tombelaine. Louis d'Estouteville replaced Jean on September 2, 1424, and the latter withdrew from the city on November 17, 1424, the women, children and prisoners. Tombelaine is further reinforced. At each low tide, the English descend from it to the walls of the Mont. Communication is only possible through skirmishes and fights. It was in June or July 1425 that the British recruited fighters, including Robert Jollivet, also in Granville, including Damour Le Bouffy (who received 122 pounds for 30 days), and launched a terrible attack, which failed, against the Michelists and the Breton knights. In November 1425 d'Estouteville organized a "bloody lesson of prudence": a surprise sortie in force that overthrew the British, "the massacre was horrible". The monks commit all their precious accessories and strengthen their fortifications, build the gate, the portcullis and the drawbridge. Charles VII encourages them to defend themselves and, since they are isolated, authorizes them to mint coins in 1426. The British remained there until 1433.

The 30-year siege

(L’assedio dei 30 anni)

(Le siège de 30 ans)

In 1433, a fire destroyed part of the city, and the British took the opportunity to attack the abbey. It was a great offensive that Thomas de Scales launched on June 17, 1434, at high and low tide, with artillery and war machines. The romantic historiography of the 119 Norman knights defenders of Mont-Saint-Michel who resisted for thirty years and who during this attack carried out such a massacre that the 20,000 British were driven back and pursued on the banks, is an image of Epinal invented in the 1980s. of the nineteenth century. During this 30-year siege, the fortress abbey was permanently defended by only about twenty people, while the 119 knights could have had family members in the English army, the 1434 assault comprised no more than 2,000 British. Last attack by the British, during which Thomas Scalles' army abandoned the bombards (two of these artillery pieces, the famous "Michelettes", are visible at the entrance to Mont-Saint-Michel), after which they contented themselves with observing them from Tombelaine and their bastions. From that moment on, the Mount was no longer besieged until the liberation of Normandy in 1450

The Transformation in Prison

(La Trasformazione in Carcere)

(La transformation en prison)

National symbol of resistance against the British, the prestige of the abbey has however decreased since the 12th century, losing its military and religious interest (the system of commendation established in 1523 by the king of France ends up ruining the abbey), even if the kings continued to come on pilgrimage to the Mount and a stake remained there during the Wars of Religion (the Huguenots tried to seize this bastion of the Catholic League in 1577note 6, 1589note 7, 1591): it became, under the Ancien Régime, a place of detention for several people incarcerated under different jurisdictions: legends say that the abbots set up dungeons starting from the 11th century. A state prison is attested under Louis XI who had a "girl" installed in the Romanesque abbey house, a wooden and iron cage suspended under a vault. The loosening of customs (some monks live with wives and children) despite the reform of 1622 by the Maurists and the lack of maintenance led Louis XV, in 1731, to transform part of the abbey into a state prison.

The Bastille of the Seas

(La Bastiglia dei Mari)

(La Bastille des Mers)

It earned the nickname "bastille of the seas" where Victor Dubourg de La Cassagne or Desforges was imprisoned. In 1766 the fortress abbey fell into disrepair. At the end of the 18th century, the abbey housed only about ten monks. Paradoxically, this penitentiary use saved this great testimony of religious architecture because many abbeys that became state property in 1789 were razed to the ground, sold to private individuals, transformed into stone quarries or ruined due to lack of maintenance. When the last Benedictines left the Mont in 1791 (the abbey was then designated with the name of "Mont Michel") during the Revolution, it then became only a prison where they were incarcerated, from 1793 (it then bore the name of "Mont libre" ), more than 300 refractory priests.

The Prison after the French Revolution

(La Prigione dopo la Rivoluzione Francese)

(La prison après la Révolution française)

Numerous riots denounced the mistreatment: under Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, prisoners, ultra-realists or republicans, even if they did not mix during their walks twice a day on the platform in front of the church, rebelled against the director of the prison Martin des Landes who is replaced. However, thanks to the "guns", the wealthiest can pay the jailers to get outings in the lower city, the others can borrow rare works copied by the monks in the scriptorium. The abbey was transformed into a penitentiary in 1810, taking charge of prisoners sentenced to long sentences. Up to 700 inmates (men, women and children42) will work in the abbey premises transformed into workshops, in particular making straw hats in the abbey church divided into three levels: refectory on the lower level, dormitory on the intermediate level, weaving workshop under the roofs. 10. In 1834 the church suffered a fire fueled by straw. After the detention at the Mont of socialists such as Martin Bernard, Armand Barbès and Auguste Blanqui, various intellectuals, including Victor Hugo (who exclaimed "do you think you see a toad in a reliquary" by visiting it), denounced the abbey-prison whose state of degradation makes living conditions unbearable.

The Closure of the Prison in 1863

(La Chiusura della Prigione nel 1863)

(La fermeture de la prison en 1863)

Napoleon III decided to close in 1863 this house of force and correction which had seen 14,000 prisoners pass, but the imperial decree of abolition was also issued for a practical reason: in a high tide in 1852, the river Sélune came to dig around the mount a bed that completely isolated it at low tide, which obstructs supplies. The 650 state prisoners and common law inmates were then transferred to the mainland. In 1794 an optical telegraph device, the Chappe system, was installed on top of the bell tower, thus making Mont-Saint-Michel a link in the Paris-Brest telegraph line. In 1817 the numerous changes made by the prison administration caused the collapse of the building built by Robert de Torigni.

The Historical Monument

(Il Monumento Storico)

(Le Monument Historique)

The abbey was rented to the bishop of Coutances from 1863 and in 1867 it regained its primary vocation. On July 3, 1877, the grandiose coronation of the statue of St. Michael took place in the abbey church, in the midst of a period of sacral reaffirmation. Celebrated by the bishop of Coutances Abel-Anastase Germain in the presence of a cardinal, eight bishops and a thousand priests, these festivals attract 25,000 pilgrims.

The Restoration of the Monument

(Il Restauro del Monumento)

(La restauration du monument)

Viollet-le-Duc visits le mont en 1835, mais ce sont ses élèves, Paul Gout et Édouard Corroyer (la fameuse Mère Poulard fut sa femme de chambre), qui sont destinés à restaurer ce chef-d'œuvre de art gothique French. Urgent consolidation and restoration work on the abbey, declared a historic monument in 1862, was carried out in 1872 by Édouard Corroyer, archivist of Historic Monuments, commissioned by the Ministry of Education with the mission of restoring du Mont and its restoration. The bell tower and spire, damaged by storms and lightning that set the abbey on fire twelve times, were rebuilt between 1892 and 1897 in characteristic nineteenth-century styles, neo-Romanesque for the bell tower, neo-Gothic for the spire. The architect Victor Petitgrand had to dismantle the Romanesque tower to reinforce it, more than 170 meters above sea level: an ostentatious sign of appropriation of the place, this spire gives the Mont its current pyramidal shape.

The Statue of the Archangel San Michele

(La Statua dell'Arcangelo San Michele)

(La Statue de l'Archange San Michele)

(statue in laminated, embossed and gilded copper plates) that crowns the spire (finally completed in 1898) was made in 1895 by the sculptor Emmanuel Frémiet in the Monduit workshops who had already worked for Viollet-le-Duc. Measuring 3.5 m, weighing 800 kilograms and having cost 6,000 francs (15,000 euros today), it was erected on 6 August 1897 but curiously experienced the same media indifference as the construction of the spire. Three lightning rods attached to the ends of the wings and the sword allow you to ward off the danger of lightning. Like the abbot Guillaume de Lamps spire built in 1509 which already supported a gilded figure of Saint Michael (this spire was pulled down in 1594 following a fire caused by lightning), this statue shines in the rays of the sun and has an effect suggestive on the visitor and on the pilgrim.

Notre Dame Sous Terre

(Notre Dame Sous Terre)

(Notre-Dame Sous-Terre)

The subsequent expansions of the abbey ended up incorporating the entire original abbey church, built around 900, until it was forgotten, before its discovery during excavations between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Restored in the 1960s, this chapel offers a remarkable example of Carolingian pre-Romanesque architecture. It is a room with a barrel vault of 14 × 12 m, divided from the beginning into two naves by a median wall pierced by two large arches, which supported, before their collapse, three of the pillars of the Romanesque nave of the church. The choirs of Notre-Dame Sous-Terre are surmounted by a platform that was probably used to present the relics to the faithful gathered in the aisles, preventing their theft. The arches are built with flat bricks assembled with mortar, according to the Carolingian technique. The Romanesque buildings of the abbey were later raised to the west and above the Carolingian church

Notre Dame Sous Terre, the maintenance of the symbolic role

(Notre Dame Sous Terre, il mantenimento del ruolo simbolico)

(Notre Dame Sous Terre, le maintien du rôle symbolique)

When its main function ceased, the architects nevertheless kept this room for its symbolic role: according to the legend of Mons, it was precisely the site of the chapel that Sant'Auberto had built in 709. According to the story of the discovery of the relics, "De translatione et miraculis beati Autberti ”, the skeleton of the bishop would have been placed on an altar dedicated to the Holy Trinity, in the western nave of Notre-Dame Sous-Terre. Other prestigious relics were exhibited, those of the Archangel Michael, despite being immaterial (piece of marble on which Michael would have set foot, a fragment of his red cloak, a sword and a shield, his two weapons which, according to a legend, it would have served to defeat the snake of the English king

The Abbey Church

(La Chiesa abbaziale)

(L'église abbatiale)

In 1963, during the restoration of the panoramic terrace, Yves-Marie Froidevaux found underground the foundations of the north wall of the Romanesque nave, its three western spans, the two square towers drawn against the first facade of the 12th century, and between these two towers , three steps that indicate the initial entrance. The so-called Grand Degré staircase is accessed to the west paved terrace (called the west terrace), consisting of the original square of the church and the first three bays of the destroyed nave. As pilgrimages intensified, it was decided to expand the abbey by building a new abbey church in place of the abbey buildings which were moved north of Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre. The church has a length of 70 m, a height of 17 m at the walls of the nave, 25 m under the vault of the choir.

The New Abbey Church

(La Nuova Chiesa abbaziale)

(La nouvelle église abbatiale)

The new abbey church has three crypts which serve as foundations: the chapel of the Thirty Candles (under the arm of the north transept), the crypt of the Gros Piliers, which supports the choir, to the east, and the chapel of Saint-Martin, under the arm of the south transept (1031-1047). The nave, on the west side, rests on Notre-Dame-sous-Terre. Abbot Ranulphe then began construction of the nave in 1060. In 1080 three floors of Romanesque-style convent buildings were built north of Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre, including the Aquilon room, which served as a reception chaplaincy pilgrims, the monks' walk and the dormitory. The cellar and the chaplaincy of the future Merveille were also started. Adorned with a false device on a white background, the nave was illuminated by crowns of light and was to form a universe full of colors, in contrast to the current simplicity.

The Subsequent Reconstructions

(Le Ricostruzioni Successive)

(Les reconstructions ultérieures)

Badly consolidated, the north aisles of the nave collapsed on the buildings of the convent in 1103. The abbot Roger II had them rebuilt (1115-1125). In 1421 it was the turn of the Romanesque choir that collapsed. It will be rebuilt in Flamboyant Gothic style between 1446 and 1450, then from 1499 to 1523. Following a fire in 1776, the three western bays of the nave were demolished and a new facade was built in 1780: built in the spirit of the time, that is, in neoclassical architecture, it consists of a first level with a central door surrounded by two side doors, and hooked columns decorated with reused capitals. The fire in the prisoners' cell installed in the nave of the church in 1834 completely devoured the skeleton of the attic and the walls, damaging the sculptures and capitals, the current ones dating back to the nineteenth century. A band supports the windows surmounted by a semicircular arch. The floor is also marked by columns connected with Doric capitals. A triangular pediment crowns the entablature of this floor, ending the central span at the sides of which the lateral spans are dampened in buttress walls that lead to columns terminated by pyramidions inspired by the style of the "return from Egypt"

The nave

(La Navata)

(La nef)

The elevation of the nave, on three levels, is made possible by the light paneling of the ceiling. This façade is in pure Norman style and will be generalized in freestone in the 12th century, prefiguring the Gothic cathedrals: the first level consists of large arches supported by square pillars (1.42 m on each side) and delimited by four columns engaged a third of them in diameter and no longer prismatic but with a toric profile, separating the two rather narrow naves (note 14) with cross vaults; above, a floor of stands with two arches per span, each divided into two twin spans; the third level consists of tall windows.

The Gothic Choir

(Il Coro Gotico)

(Le chœur gothique)

The Gothic choir is inspired by that of the abbey of Saint-Ouen in Rouen. The pillars confined with thin ribs support a perforated triforo on the intermediate floor, mounted on a perforated balustrade. On the upper level, each of the tall windows, flanked by two ends, continues the plan of the skylight, to which it is connected by the upright that descends to support the second level. The keystones of the choir represent, among other things, the coats of arms of the building abbots. Seven radiant chapels open up around the ambulatory. Two of them contain bas-reliefs in Caen stone dating back to the 16th century (tetramorph symbolizing the four evangelists in front of the ancient "Art Déco" altar of the abbey church, in the first chapel to the north; Adam and Eve expelled from the Earthly Paradise and Christ who descends into Limbo to grant them forgiveness in the first chapel to the south), reliefs corresponding to some polychrome fragments that decorated the ancient enclosure, reserving space for the monks. The small boat suspended to the right of the chapel located in the axis of the church is an ex voto made by one of the prisoners of the Monte in the 19th century following a wish in memory of a grace obtained. The glazed terracotta flooring of the choir was built in 1965 to replace the old cement tiles

The Bells

(Le Campane)

(Les cloches)

The abbey church has four important bells: Rollon, installed by the prelate Bernardo, in 113563; Benoiste and Catherine, recast from the 4th prior Dom Michel Perron, around 1635; The fog bell, cast in 1703, under the prelature of Jean-Frédéric Karq de Bebembourg.

The Underground Chapels: The Crypt of the Gros-Piliers

(Le Cappelle Sotterranee: La Cripta dei Gros-Piliers)

(Les Chapelles Souterraines : La Crypte des Gros-Piliers)

The church choir rests on a low church, called Crypt of the Gros-Piliers, (Crypt of the Great Pillars) made necessary by the difference in height between the high church and the external terrain. Originally it was the apse crypt which was replaced by a flamboyant Gothic crypt, built from 1446 to 1450. This new crypt, never dedicated to worship, was built to support the new choir which collapsed in 1421 and rebuilt at the same time. Its plan with an ambulatory and six radiant chapels alternating with hooked columns is therefore the same as the choir, but the first span rests directly on the rock, the first two spans from the south are occupied by a cistern and the first two from the north by a smaller tank and an exit on Marvel. This room has ten pillars, eight of which are large, cylindrical, with a circumference of 5 meters (from which the crypt takes its name), without capitals, but with octagonal or dodecagonal bases, arranged in a semicircle, and two thinner central columns with the evocative name of palm trees, because they branch like the leaves of these plants. The Romanesque posts of this crypt are lined with new granite beds from the Chausey Islands, these Gothic posts that support the Romanesque pillar sections of the upper church, because one cannot reasonably imagine a base, which would have been very expensive. This crypt was a traffic crossroads between different rooms in the eastern part of the monastery: “a door connects the crypt to the Chapel of Saint-Martin. Three others, practiced in the two southern chapels, lead one to the Officer, the second to the abbey buildings from the fortified bridge thrown over the Grand Degré, the third to a staircase that goes up to the Upper Church, from there, to the terraces of the triforium and finally to the steps of the Dentelle

Substructures of the transept: The Chapel of Saint Martin

(Sottostrutture del transetto: La Cappella di Saint Martin)

(Soubassements du transept : La Chapelle Saint Martin)

The transept is supported by two vaulted crypts, known to the north as "Chapelle des Trente Cierges" and to the south "Chapelle Saint-Martin", the only ones included in the usual tourist circuit. From 1031 to 1048 the abbots Almod, Theodoric and Suppo, successors of Ildeberto II, completed these lateral crypts.

Transept substructures: The Chapel of Thirty Candles

(Sottostrutture del transetto: La Chapelle des Trente Cierges)

(Soubassements du transept : La Chapelle des Trente Bougies)

The layout of the Chapelle des Trente Cierges (Chapel of the Thirty Candles) is similar to that of the Chapelle Saint-Martin. With cross vaults and retains important remains of murals. A restoration made it possible to highlight a motif of "faux apparel" (ephemeral decorations), very common throughout the Middle Ages, embellished with a foliage frieze. A mass was celebrated there every day during which thirty candles were lit every day after Prime, (First hour) hence the name of the chapel

Roger II's building, north of the nave

(Edificio di Ruggero II, a nord della navata)

(Bâtiment de Roger II, au nord de la nef)

To the north of the nave is a Romanesque abbey building from the end of the 11th century comprising, from bottom to top, the Aquilone (Kite) room (or gallery or crypt), the monks' walk and a former dormitory

The Sala dell'Aquilone (Kite Hall)

(La Sala dell’Aquilone)

(La Sala dell'Aquilone (salle du cerf-volant))

The Sala dell'Aquilone (Kite Hall) is the former Romanesque oratory, rebuilt and modernized after the collapse of the north wall of the nave in 1103. Located just below the walkway, it serves as the basis for the entire building. It is organized in two spans of ribbed ribs on transverse arches traced in broken arches (according to a project inaugurated a few years earlier in Cluny III), supported by three axial pillars corresponding to those of the waterfront

Walk of the Monks

(Passeggiata dei Monaci)

(Marche des moines)

A little above there is a room called "monks' walk" corresponding to the plan of the previous one, with three pillars, which is extended by a corridor resting directly on the rock and supported by two pillars. This corridor leads to the "Secret of the Devil", a graceful vaulted room with a single pillar, then to the Chapel of the Thirty Candles located on the same level and, to the north, to the Sala dei Cavalieri, located below. The destination of this room of the "promenoir" is uncertain: former refectory, chapter house or, according to Corroyer, former cloister

Dormitory

(Dormitorio)

(Dortoir)

The upper level was occupied by the ancient dormitory, a long room covered by a frame and covered with a coffered barrel vault, of which only the eastern part remains

Buildings by Robert de Torigni

(Edifici di Robert de Torigni)

(Bâtiments de Robert de Torigni)

Abbot Robert de Torigni had a group of buildings built to the west and south-west including new abbey dwellings, an official building, a new inn, an infirmary and the chapel of Saint-Étienne (1154-1164). He also reorganized the communication routes in the service of Notre-Dame-sous-Terre, to avoid too many contacts between the pilgrims and the monks of the abbey. There is also a "squirrel cage" used as a winch, installed in 1819, when the site was converted into a prison, to supply the inmates. The prisoners, walking inside the wheel, ensured its rotation and functioning. Among the ruins of the infirmary, which collapsed in 1811, the three dead from the Tale of the Three Dead and the Three Alive remain above the door, a mural depiction initially showing three young gentlemen being interrogated in a cemetery with three dead, which recall the brevity of the life and the importance of the salvation of their souls

La Merveille and the Monastic Buildings

(La Merveille e gli Edifici Monastici)

(La Merveille et les Bâtiments Monastiques)

The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel essentially consists of two distinct parts: the Romanesque abbey, where the monks lived and, on the north side, the Merveille (the Wonder), an exceptional ensemble of Gothic architecture raised on three levels, thanks to the generosity of Philippe Auguste, from 1211 to 1228 The Merveille building, located just north of the abbey church, includes from top to bottom: the cloister and the refectory; the Work Room (known as the Knights' Room) and the Guest Room; the cellar and the chaplaincy, all in a perfect example of functional integration. The whole, leaning against the slope of the rock, consists of two bodies of three-storey buildings. On the ground floor, the cellar acts as a buttress. Then each floor has rooms that get lighter as you go to the top; fifteen powerful buttresses, placed outside, support the whole. The topographical constraints therefore played an important role in the construction of the Merveille, but these three floors also symbolize the social hierarchy in the Middle Ages corresponding to the three orders of society of the Ancien Régime: the clergy (considered the first order in the Middle Ages), the nobility and the Third State. The poor are welcomed in the chaplaincy, above the gentlemen welcomed in the guest room, above the monks near the sky. Raoul des Îles had the guest room (1215-1217) and the refectory (1217-1220) built above the chaplaincy; then, above the cellar, the Sala dei Cavalieri (1220-1225) and finally the cloister (1225-1228). La Merveille is organized in two parts: the eastern part and the western part

La Merveille: Eastern part

(La Merveille: Parte Orientale)

(La Merveille : partie Est)

The eastern part was the first to be built, from 1211 to 1218. It includes, from bottom to top, three rooms: The Oratory ( chaplaincy) , built under Roger II, then the guest room and the refectory, the work of Raoul des Îles . , from 1217 to 1220.

La Merveille: eastern part, the Oratory

(La Merveille: parte orientale, l'Oratorio)

(La Merveille : partie est, l'Oratoire)

The Oratory was therefore, most likely, the first realization of the Merveille, built under the abbot Roger II starting from 1211. It is a long, very functional, massive room, built to support the weight of the upper floors, composed from a series of six large smooth round columns surmounted by very simple capitals, they separated two aisles with cross vaults. The poorest pilgrims were welcomed there.

La Merveille: eastern part, The Guest Room, (1215-1217)

(La Merveille: parte orientale, La Sala degli Ospiti, (1215-1217))

(La Merveille : partie orientale, La Chambre d'Hôtes, (1215-1217))

The guest room is a room with cross vaults, with two naves separated by six columns, thus taking up the layout of the chaplaincy, located just below. But if the plan is the same, the realization this time is luxurious, airy, with internal buttresses (hidden by ribbed and hooked semi-columns) that mark each span the side walls pierced by high windows composed on the north face by two hands divided by an upright horizontal and arranged under relief arches.

La Merveille: The Refectory (1217-1220). The Most Beautiful Wall in the World

(La Merveille: Il Refettorio (1217-1220). Il Muro Più Bello del Mondo)

(La Merveille : Le Réfectoire (1217-1220). Le plus beau mur du monde)

Refectory of the monks, whose paneling rests on a band, profiled by a flat section, a border, and a large cable between two nets. The monks' refectory occupies the third and last level of this eastern part of the Merveille. The room is bounded in a single volume by two parallel walls whose longitudinal barrel-vaulted axis, although nothing underlines it, leads the eye towards the abbot's seat. Since the architect was unable to weaken the walls by opening windows that were too large, given the span of the cradle, he therefore chose to drill the lightened walls with fifty-nine small columns embedded in pillars stiffened by a lozenge-shaped plan. In the north wall the pillars frame as many tall and narrow accordion windows with open and deep splayings ("loophole"), contributing to the splendor of this north facade of the Merveille, "the most beautiful wall in the world", in the eyes of Victor Hugo. The columns are equipped with capitals with hooks on a round basket and crowned by an abacus, also round, where you can see a dripping characteristic of the Norman Gothic abacus. The replacement of the walls with these stiffening elements demonstrates a surprising modernism and "somehow prefigures the founding principles of metal architecture." Characteristic of the Gothic style of Lower Normandy is the window divided into three shapes surmounted by a large trilobed oculus, extrados in a very obtuse pointed arch In the 60s, on old models, floors and furniture were made in glazed terracotta.

La Merveille: eastern part, the Refectory Pulpit

(La Merveille: parte orientale, Il Pulpito del Refettorio)

(La Merveille : partie Est, la Chaire du Réfectoire)

At the center of the south wall, integrated between two arches covered by cross vaults, stands a pulpit in which the reader, a monk himself named in the weekly, intoned recto tone pious and edifying texts. In the southwest corner of this same wall ends the freight elevator from which the dishes descended from the former kitchen of the community housed fifty meters higher.

La Merveille: western part

(La Merveille: parte occidentale)

(La Merveille : partie ouest)

The western part, built seven years later, is also divided, from bottom to top, on three levels: the cellar, the Knights' Room and the cloister

La Merveille: western part, the Cellar

(La Merveille: parte occidentale, la Cantina)

(La Merveille : partie ouest, la Cave)

The cellar was a large, cool and dimly lit room, which performed the dual function of storing food and supporting the heavy upper structure. Masonry pillars with a square section and with a cross section are installed in such a way as to act as a substructure for the columns of the Sala dei Cavalieri, placed just above. These pillars separate the cellar into three naves, covered by simple cross vaults. It is now used as a bookstore.

La Merveille: western part, Scriptorium or Hall of the Knights (1220-1225)

(La Merveille: parte occidentale, Scriptorium o Sala dei Cavalieri (1220-1225))

(La Merveille : partie ouest, Scriptorium ou Salle des Chevaliers (1220-1225))

This room was the scriptorium, where monks spent much of their time copying and illuminating precious manuscripts. After the creation of the Order of the Knights of Saint-Michel by Louis XI, it took the name of Salle des Chevaliers. However, it does not appear that it was used for purposes other than monastic ones.

La Merveille: western part, Cloister (1225-1228)

(La Merveille: parte occidentale, Chiostro (1225-1228))

(La Merveille : partie ouest, Cloître (1225-1228))

The architect, having tried to give the cloister as much extension as possible, had an irregular quadrilateral built whose southern loggia bordered on the northern couple of the Church. But the cloister is not, as usual, in the center of the monastery occupied by the church. Therefore it does not communicate with all its members as happens elsewhere, more often than not. Its function is therefore purely spiritual: to lead the monk to meditation. The most beautiful sculptures (arches, pendentives, exuberant and varied floral decoration) are made of fine limestone, Caen stone. Three arches of the west gallery are surprisingly open to the sea and the void. These three openings were to constitute the entrance to the chapter house which was never built. The columns arranged in staggered rows were initially made of snail limestone imported from England, but have been restored in Lucerne pudding stone. In the south gallery, a door communicates with the church and the windows illuminate the Devil's Cell and the Trenta Ceri Chapel. Two bays of twin arches, supporting the covered path overlooking the cloister, frame the toilet arranged on two overlapping benches, where one washed one's hands before entering the refectory. In particular, the ceremony of the washing of the feet was renewed every Thursday.

La Merveille: western part, Kitchens and Refectory

(La Merveille: parte occidentale, Cucine e Refettorio)

(La Merveille : partie ouest, Cuisines et Réfectoire)

The two doors of the east gallery open onto the kitchens and the refectory. The dungeons were built in the 19th century under the attic of the north gallery to lock up recalcitrant prisoners, such as Martin Bernard, Blanqui and other political prisoners of 1830 or 1848. A medieval garden was recreated in 1966 by Fra Bruno de Senneville, a passionate Benedictine monk of botany. In the center, a rectangular boxwood motif was bordered by thirteen Damascus roses. The squares of medicinal plants, aromatic herbs and flowers evoked the daily needs of monks in the Middle Ages. The cloister underwent major works from January to November 2017. The sculptural elements, cleaned and restored, were highlighted by quality lighting. The floor of the galleries has been lowered to the original level. The previous garden has been replaced by a now waterproofed lawn.

La Merveille: The third part never built

(La Merveille: La Terza parte mai costruita)

(La Merveille : La troisième partie jamais construite)

The third part of the Wonder, to the west, was never built: the solid embankment still visible should have supported, like the other two parts, three levels: below, a courtyard; above, an infirmary; finally, at the top, the chapter house communicating with the cloister

Belle Chaise and buildings to the southeast

(Belle Chaise e edifici a sud-est)

(Belle Chaise et bâtiments au sud-est)

Similarly, the buildings of the Belle Chaise (completed in 1257, the decoration reconstructed in 199486: 78) and the abbey houses integrate the administrative functions of the abbey with the functions of worship. Abbot Richard Turstin had the Salle des Gardes (current entrance to the abbey) built to the east, as well as a new official building, where the justice of the abbey was administered (1257).

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Mont Saint Michel

Welcome to Mont Saint Michel

History

The Tides

The Coast

The restoration works of the maritime character

The Tourist Route

Religious revival and tourism development

Local Gastronomy

The Abbey

The Abbey

The Abbey Visiting Circuits

The History of the Abbey

The Prison

The Historical Monument

The Historic Monument: Notre Dame Sous Terre

The Historical Monument: The Romanesque Abbey

The Historic Monument: La Merveille

Welcome to Mont Saint Michel

(Benvenuti a Mont Saint Michel)

(Bienvenue au Mont Saint Michel)

On the bay of Mont-Saint-Michel

(Sulla baia di Mont-Saint-Michel)

(Sur la baie du Mont-Saint-Michel)

The busiest tourist site in Normandy

(Il Sito Turistico più frequentato della Normandia)

(Le site touristique le plus fréquenté de Normandie)

World Heritage Site. UNESCO

(Patrimonio dell'Umanità. UNESCO)

(Site du patrimoine mondial. UNESCO)

Toponymy

(Toponimia)

(Toponymie)

The Gauls

(I Galli)

(Les Gaulois)

Romans

(I Romani)

(Romains)

The Beginning of the Christian Era

(L'Inizio dell'Era Cristiana)

(Le début de l'ère chrétienne)

The Apparition of the Archangel Michael

(L'Apparizione dell' Arcangelo Michele)

(L'apparition de l'archange Michel)

The Benedictine Abbey

(L'Abbazia Benedettina)

(L'abbaye bénédictine)

The Abandonment

(L'Abbandono)

(L'abandon)

The Rebirth after the Revolution

(La Rinascita dopo la Rivoluzione)

(La Renaissance après la Révolution)

The Tides

(Le Maree)

(Les marées)

The Bay

(La Baia)

(La Baie)

Geology

(Geologia)

(Géologie)

The Salty Meadows

(I Prati Salati)

(Les prés salés)

La Tangue

(La Tangue)

(La Tangue)

The Forest of Scissy and the Invasion of the Sea

(La Foresta di Scissy e l'Invasione del Mare)

(La forêt de Scissy et l'invasion de la mer)

The Old Access Dam

(La Vecchia Diga di Accesso)

(L'ancien barrage d'accès)

The Risk of Cover-up

(Il Rischio di Insabbiamento)

(Le risque de dissimulation)