Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey
A Gothic abbey rising from a tidal island off the Normandy coast.
Crowning a tidal island off the Normandy coast, the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel grew from an early sanctuary dedicated to the archangel Michael into one of medieval Europe's great Benedictine monasteries. Benedictine monks arrived in 966, and over the following centuries the complex was expanded with Romanesque crypts and church, the Gothic Merveille with its cloister and refectory (completed 1228), and fortifications raised during the Hundred Years' War.
After the French Revolution the abbey became a prison until 1863, when a campaign backed by figures such as Victor Hugo led to its closure and a long restoration. A neo-Gothic spire topped by Emmanuel Frémiet's gilded Saint Michael was added in the 1890s. Today the abbey is run by the Centre des monuments nationaux, forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed in 1979, and is one of the most visited monuments in France; reaching it involves a long climb with many steps.
Highlights
- The Merveille, a 13th-century Gothic monastic block
- Cloister suspended between sky and sea
- Abbey church crowned by a gilded Saint Michael
- Romanesque crypts and the Grand Degré staircase
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