Mont Saint-Michel

Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Mont-Saint-Michel at night
State Party Flag of France.svg France
Type Cultural
Criteria i, iii, vi
Reference 80
Region** Europe
Inscription history
Inscription 1979  (3rd Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.

Le Mont-Saint-Michel (English: St Michael's Mount) is a rocky tidal island and a commune in Normandy, France. It is located approximately one kilometer off the country's north coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches.

Contents

Formation

In prehistoric times the bay was land. As sea levels rose erosion shaped the coastal landscape over millions of years. Several blocks of granite or granulite emerged in the bay, having resisted the wear and tear of the ocean better than the surrounding rocks. These included Lillemer, the Mont-Dol, Tombelaine and Mont Tombe, later called Mont-Saint-Michel.

Tidal island

Mont-Saint-Michel seen from Spot Satellite

Le Mont-Saint-Michel was previously connected to the mainland via a thin natural land bridge, which before modernization was covered at high tide and revealed at low tide. This has been compromised by several developments. Over the centuries, the coastal flats have been polderised to create pasture. Thus the distance between the shore and the south coast of Mont-Saint-Michel has decreased. The Couesnon River has been canalised, reducing the flow of water and thereby encouraging a silting-up of the bay. In 1879, the land bridge was fortified into a true causeway. This prevented the tide from scouring the silt round the mount.

At low tide surrounded by mud flats - seen from the air

On 16 June 2006, the French prime minister and regional authorities announced a €164 million project (Projet Mont-Saint-Michel[1]) to build a hydraulic dam that will help remove the accumulated silt and make Mont-Saint-Michel an island again. It is expected to be completed by 2012.[2]

History

The Mont-Saint-Michel from the south
The Mont-Saint Michel

Mont-Saint-Michel was used in the sixth and seventh centuries as an Armorican stronghold of Romano-Breton culture and power, until it was ransacked by the Franks, thus ending the trans-channel culture that had stood since the departure of the Romans in AD 460.

Before the construction of the first monastic establishment in the 8th century, the island was called Mont Tombe. According to legend, the archangel Michael appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, in 708 and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel's instruction, until Michael burned a hole in the bishop's skull with his finger.

The mount gained strategic significance in 933 when William "Long Sword", William I, Duke of Normandy, annexed the Cotentin Peninsula, definitively placing the mount in Normandy. It is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the 1066 Norman conquest of England. Ducal patronage financed the spectacular Norman architecture of the abbey in subsequent centuries.

In 1067, the monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel gave its support to duke William of Normandy in his claim to the throne of England. It was rewarded with properties and grounds on the English side of the Channel, including a small island located at the west of Cornwall, which, modelled after the Mount, became a Norman priory named St Michael's Mount of Penzance.

During the Hundred Years' War the English made repeated assaults on the island but were unable to seize it, partly because of the abbey's improved fortifications. Les Michelettes, two wrought-iron bombards left by the English in their failed 1423–24 siege of Mont-Saint-Michel, are still displayed near the outer defense wall.

Some of the old buildings in the village

The wealth and influence of the abbey extended to many daughter foundations, including St Michael's Mount in Cornwall. However, its popularity and prestige as a centre of pilgrimage waned with the Reformation, and by the time of the French Revolution there were scarcely any monks in residence. The abbey was closed and converted into a prison, initially to hold clerical opponents of the republican régime. High-profile political prisoners followed, but by 1836 influential figures, including Victor Hugo, had launched a campaign to restore what was seen as a national architectural treasure. The prison was finally closed in 1863, and the mount was declared a historic monument in 1874. The Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay were added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1979, as they rank very high on such World Heritage Site criteria as cultural, historical, and architectural significance, as well as human-created and natural beauty.

Development

Design

Plan of the mount by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

William de Volpiano, the Italian architect who had built the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy, was chosen as building contractor by Richard II of Normandy in the 11th century. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey, daringly placing the transept crossing at the top of the mount. Many underground crypts and chapels had to be built to compensate for this weight; these formed the basis for the supportive upward structure that can be seen today. Today Mont-Saint-Michel is seen as a Gothic-style church.

Robert de Thorigny, a great supporter of Henry II of England (who was also Duke of Normandy), reinforced the structure of the buildings and built the main façade of the church in the 12th century. In 1204 the Breton Guy de Thouars, allied to the King of France, undertook the siege of the Mount. After having set fire to the village and having massacred the population, he was obliged to beat a retreat under the powerful walls of the Abbey. Unfortunately, the fire which he himself lit extended to the buildings, and the roofs fell prey to the flames. Horrified by the cruelty and the exactions of his Breton ally, Philip Augustus offered Abbot Jourdain a grant for the construction of a new Gothic-style architectural set which included the addition of the refectory and cloister.

Charles VI is credited with adding major fortifications to the abbey-mount, building towers, successive courtyards and strengthening the ramparts.

Tides

Thick mud is exposed on the banks of the river Couesnon at low tide.

The tides in the area change quickly, and have been described by Victor Hugo as "à la vitesse d'un cheval au galop" or "as swiftly as a galloping horse".

The tides can vary greatly, at roughly 14 metres between high and low water marks. Popularly nicknamed "St. Michael in peril of the sea" by medieval pilgrims making their way across the flats, the mount can still pose dangers for visitors who avoid the causeway and attempt the hazardous walk across the sands from the neighbouring coast. The danger of drowning from coastal tides after getting caught in quicksand continues to claim lives.

Polderisation and occasional flooding created salt marsh meadows that were found to be ideally suited to grazing sheep. The well-flavoured meat that results from the diet of the sheep in the pré salé (salt meadow) makes agneau de pré-salé (salt meadow lamb), a local specialty that may be found on the menus of restaurants that depend on income from the many visitors to the mount.

Administration

The islet belongs to the French commune of Le Mont-Saint-Michel, of the Manche département, in the Basse-Normandie région. Population (1999): 50. The nearest major town, with an SNCF train station, is Pontorson. Mont-Saint-Michel belongs to the Organization of World Heritage Cities.

The Mont-Saint-Michel has also been the subject of traditional, but nowadays good-humoured, rivalry between Normans and Bretons. Bretons claim that, since the Couesnon River marks the traditional boundary between Normandy and Brittany, it is only because the river has altered its course over the centuries that the mount is on the Norman side of the frontier. This legend amuses the frontier inhabitants who know that the border is not located on the Couesnon river itself but on the mainland at 4 km in the west, at the foot of the solid mass of Saint-Brelade.

The spire of Mont-Saint-Michel is visible from the courtyard outside the abbey.
The entrance to the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel leading out into the courtyard in front of the abbey.

Mont-Saint-Michel in modern culture

References

  1. ↑ Projet Mont-Saint-Michel
  2. ↑ La Baie, June 2007, p.4, in French
  3. ↑ The Elusive Pimpernel
  4. ↑ Adams, Henry (1905). Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres. self-published. http://books.google.com/books?id=RYIRp86RIgEC. 
  5. ↑ Lenoir, Frederic; Violette Cabesos (2004). La promesse de l'ange. Albin Michel. ISBN 9782226150811 (in French). 
  6. ↑ Debussy's: La Cathedrale Engloutie
  7. ↑ Chattam, Maxime (2005). Le Sang du Temps. Michel Lafon. ISBN 9782749902524 (in French). 

See also

External links

World Heritage Sites in France

Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe · Amiens Cathedral · Roman and Romanesque Monuments, Arles · Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge, Avignon · Belfries of Belgium and France (with Belgium) · Bordeaux, Port of the Moon · Bourges Cathedral · Canal du Midi · Gulf of Porto (Calanches de Piana • Gulf of Girolata • Scandola Reserve) · Carcassonne · Cathedral of Notre-Dame, former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims · Cathedral of Chartres · Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay · Fortifications of Vauban · Le Havre · Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes · Lyon · Mont Saint-Michel and its Bay · Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems · Fontainebleau Palace and Park · Palace and Park of Versailles · Paris – Banks of the Seine · Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance, Nancy · Pont du Gard · Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley · Provins · Pyrénées - Mont Perdu (with Spain) · Routes of Santiago de Compostela · Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and the "Triumphal Arch" of Orange · Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans · Saint-Émilion · Strasbourg – Grande Île · Vézelay Church and Hill

 Flag of France