708708–1434 · Mont-Saint-Michel, Manche

Mont-Saint-Michel, abbey and pilgrimage island

The abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel crowning its walled island village, seen across the sands at low tide — Photo: Lynx1211. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

According to tradition, Bishop Aubert of Avranches founded a sanctuary to the Archangel Michael on this tidal rock in 708. Benedictine monks settled there in 966, and for centuries pilgrims crossed the sands to the abbey and its Gothic Merveille. Walled and garrisoned in the Hundred Years' War, the Mount was never taken by the English and became a symbol of French resistance.

Religious & Pilgrimage
Architecture & Urban History
Normandy, France

Sites

Site 1: Abbey of Mont-Saint-MichelAbbey church, cloister and the 13th-century Merveille above the bay.Map ↗
Site 2: Basilica of Saint-Gervais, AvranchesTreasury holding the skull relic of Saint Aubert.Map ↗