The abbey of Mont Saint Michelè situated on the top of a small rocky island near the northern coast of France. The islet has a diameter of about 960 m and an area of about 280 hectares. The rock rises 92 meters from the sea but with the statue of St. Michael, placed atop the spire of the abbey church, it reaches an altitude of 170 meters.
One of the peculiarities that make the abbey and island famous is the fast tidal excursion that in the past covered the road to the island at night.
The tides and shifting sands of the bay contributed to the impregnability of the mountain, making it accessible at the lowest of the low tide (by land) or the highest of the high tide (by sea).
Legend has it that the archangel Michael in 709 appeared to the bishop of Avranches asking that a church be built on the rock for him. However, the bishop twice ignored the request until St. Michael burned his skull with a round hole caused by the touch of his finger, nevertheless leaving him alive. St. Aubert’s skull with the hole is preserved in Avranches Cathedral. The mountain then changed its name to Mont-Saint-Michel-au-péril-de-la-Mer.
Another legend has it that there would be an "energy line" connecting Mont Saint Michel, the Sacra di San Michele in the Susa Valley, and Monte Sant’Angelo on the Gargano.
Mont Saint Michel, a symbol of Normandy and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been a pilgrimage destination for hundreds of years.
The bishop of Avranches, Aubert, reportedly founded a shrine in 708 on Mont-Tombe after 3 successive apparitions of the archangel St. Michel. Consecrated in 709, the church has not ceased since then to attract curious people and pilgrims from all over the world.
A supreme place of pilgrimage from the 8th to the 18th century, the Benedictine abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel represents one of the most remarkable examples of the architecture at once religious and military of the medieval era.The abbey is an architectural marvel with its abbey church, cloister, refectory, monks’ ambulatory, and the force of nature is found in the gardens of the "Merveille."
