Mont Saint-Michel is a small rocky island turned into a fortress island on the north-west coast of France. The island is the only inhabited of the three granite formations of the Saint-Michel Bay. The city on the island has existed since 709. Currently has several dozen residents.
Mont Saint-Michel is a famous island-fortress located in Lower Normandy, in the north of France, on the border with Brittany. This is one of the most visited attractions in France, and the island itself with its historic buildings is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In addition to the picturesque location and ancient architecture, Mont Saint-Michel is also interesting for its strong ebb and flow.
The best and cheapest way to get to Mont Saint-Michel is by car, although get ready for high prices for parking and queues for entry (from parking to a cliff, you still get by bus, albeit free of charge). By train from Paris you can get through Pontorson, from where you can continue by bus from the station.
Remember the tides: in some cases, nearby parking and the road near Mont Saint-Michel may be under water. But in ordinary cases, you will not reach them anyway: the road is blocked, the entrance is closer only by passes. If the hotel is booked, you need to get a code from the hotel to enter the hotel zone (the road is blocked by a barrier). In other cases, you will have to leave the car in the parking lot even further and go by bus.
Mont Saint Michel is an island surrounded by the sea (not always - depending on the tides) and the fortress wall. Behind the main gate begins the street Grand Rue, framed by old houses, souvenir shops and crowded with tourists. Climbing along the fortifications along the stairs you will reach the main attraction of the island - the Abbey of Saint-Michel, located on the top of the cliff. You can walk only on foot and rather steeply upwards, so the carriages will have to be postponed until better times.
On inspection of Mont Saint-Michel is to lay a couple of hours at least. Although ideally catch the tide, which begins at a certain time (the schedule can be found at the hotel or at the entrance to the Mont Saint-Michel) and lasts about an hour.
Abbey of Saint-Michel is a unique architectural monument: the plan of its construction can not be compared with any other monastery. Considering the pyramidal form of the Mountain, medieval masters “wrap around” a granite cliff with buildings. The monastery church, located at the top, stands on the crypts, forming a platform that can withstand the weight of the church with a length of 80 meters.
The wonder structure, often referred to as the main decoration of the entire architectural ensemble of the Mont Saint Michel Abbey, is the epitome of the architectural perfection of the 13th century builders, who managed to keep two three-storey buildings of the buildings on the cliff side. This could be done only with the help of exact calculations. A narrow side-alley (the side of the nave of the building), attached to the wine storage on the first floor, serves as counterforts. This is followed by the overlapping supports of the first two levels of the building on the west side. Closer to the top of the cliff, the structures are becoming increasingly light. From the outside, the building is supported by powerful buttresses.
The harsh rules of monastic life also influenced the location and architecture of buildings. Charter of sv. Benedict, on which the monks of the abbey of Mont Saint Michel lived, instructed them to devote their day to prayer and labor. The rooms were planned taking into account these types of activities and with the observance of the principle of monastic solitude, i.e. with space reserved only for monks. As a result, lay room reception rooms were equipped on the first and second floors of the Miracle Building.
Tour of the abbey of Mont Saint Michel
Lower level
Passing through the Guardhouse, which is the fortified entrance to the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey, visitors walk up the Grand Degrés Staircase to the terrace of Co-Gautier. Then the route goes between the church, on the right side, and the monastery housing on the left side. They are interconnected by suspended transitions. Monastic housing, built in the period 14 - 16 centuries, served as the residence of the abbots.
Upper level
The western terrace consists of the porch of the Abbey church and the first three spans of the nave, destroyed after a 13th-century fire. The classical facade was rebuilt in 1780. The terrace offers a general view of the Gulf of Saint-Michel: from the cliff of Cancale ("Oyster"), which is located in the west, in Brittany, and up to the steep banks in the east, in Normandy. From here you can see two huge granite boulders: Mont-Dol on the mainland in the south-west and the island of Tombölen in the north. On the high seas, one can discern the archipelago of the Sosose Islands, from which granite was supplied for the construction of the Mont Saint Michel Abbey.
The terrace also offers a great view of the neo-Gothic steeple of the bell tower, built in 1897. The spire is crowned with a gilded statue of St. Michael
The Abbey Church, built in the first decades of the thousandth year, was erected on a cliff top, 80 meters above sea level, on a platform 80 meters long. The nave of the church consists of three levels: arcades, galleries and high windows. The bearing structure of the nave is covered with an arch covered with a tree. The choir, made in the Romanesque style and collapsed in 1421, was rebuilt after the Hundred Years War, but in the flaming Gothic style.
Further you will pass to the inner monastery gallery. It connected various monastic premises and was also used for prayers and meditations. During church holidays, religious processions took place on it. The gallery is located at the top of a building built at the beginning of the 13th century, which is called the Miracle Building. In the gallery you can go to the monastery refectory, to the kitchen in the church, to the dormitory (dormitory), to the archive of charters. The central doorway, opening the view of the sea from the west, was to serve as the entrance to the never-built hall of the chapter.
To facilitate its own weight all monastic galleries were made of wooden log cabins. A double row of small, slightly displaced columns shows a constantly changing perspective.
In the refectory, the monks took their food with complete silence, and at this time one of them read the Holy Fathers' instructions from a pulpit located near the southern wall. In the side walls of the hall made narrow windows, invisible from the entrance.
Average level
Next, visitors enter the Guest Hall, which is located just below the refectory. This hall was intended for the reception of kings and nobles.
From here you find yourself in a crypt of large columns. The crypt was built in the middle of the 15th century to support the Gothic choir of the monastic church.
Then the route goes to the crypt of Saint-Martin, built after the thousandth year. The crypt serves as the foundation for the south wing of the church's transept. The crypt is made in the form of a huge arch with a span of 9 meters.
From here, through a small passage you can get to the huge wheel, which is occupied by the former monastic ossuary (hall where the bones of the dead people are removed from the graves). The wheel was installed approximately in 1820: with its help they raised food for the prisoners of the Mont Saint Michel prison. The current wheel - a copy, modeled on similar wheels of the Middle Ages.
The chapel of Saint-Étienne is located between the place of healing that collapsed in the early 19th century and the monastic ossuary. She served as a chapel for the dead.
From the south side you can climb the stairs to the north side. The staircase is located under the western terrace and was a very lively place. She goes into a covered walk gallery, made in the form of a long double nave hall. Its architects invented innovation: the vaults of the hall rest on the arched intersections - this is how Gothic art was born.
Then you will find yourself again in the Miracle-house: Knight's Hall. It was built to support the inner monastery gallery and served to work and study the monks. Their creations have survived to this day: the manuscripts of the abbey of Mont Saint Michel are now stored in the city of Avranches.
The visit ends in the poorhouse, located on the first level under the Guest Hall. It was in this place that the monks received the poor and pilgrims of all classes.
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