Mont Saint Michel Abbey
The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel, founded in the 8th century, is a former Benedictine abbey located on the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Mont Saint-Michel. It is one of the biggest tourist attractions in France, one of its most recognizable cultural monuments.
About this building
The legend says that the construction of the abbey began in 708, after the bishop of Avranches witnessed the Archangel Saint-Michel who instructed him to construct a building in his honour. In 966 the duke of Normandy Richard I installed Benedictine monks on the mount and shortly before the year 1000, a pre-Romanesque church - Notre-Dame Under Earth - was built.
At the beginning of the 12th century, King Philippe Auguste of France annexed Normandy, destroying the Mont Saint Michel abbey in the process. To redeem himself, Philippe Auguste financed the construction of the Merveille: two buildings of three floors, including a cloister - completed in 1228 - and a refectory. In 1421, the Romanesque choir of the church collapsed. It was replaced at the end of the Middle Ages with a flamboyant Gothic choir.
The last Benedictines left the Mont in 1791, driven out by the Revolution which declared the abbey "national property". The Mont Saint Michel abbey served as a prison until 1863. This stage left the abbey in a deeply dilapidated state especially following several fires in the abbey church in 1776 and 1834.
The slow rebirth of the abbey began in 1874 when it was listed as a Historic Monument. Major restoration works were carried out at the end of the 19th century and a road-break built in 1879 connected the continent to the Mont, facilitating visitor access.
The abbey regained its religious use in 1969. Since 2001, the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem are the custodians of the abbey.
