Reference : FR002
AVAILABLE FOR TRADE
Size : 10,5 x 15 cm
"Le Mont-Saint-Michel"
Location of MONT-SAINT-MICHEL in FRANCE :
One night in October 708, the Archangel Saint Michael appeared to Aubert, the Bishop of Avranche, ordering him to build a sanctuary on Mount Tombe, an island of granite standing in the middle of the bay.
From the Xth Century, the Dukes of Normandy began constructing a new Church and in 966 the Benedictine Order was established on the Mont Saint Michel.
Under their supervision, the Romanesque Abbey was constructed in the XIth Century.: construction was to take sixty years.
Partially destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt, with the help of the French King, Philippe Augustes, in the XIIIth Century: this construction and those that followed until the end of the XVth Century display a new architectural style, soaring skywards with the help of immense buttresses and wrought stonework: the Gothic style was born.
Mont Saint Michel was then at its apogee and its spiritual and intellectual influence was immense throughout the whole of Christendom.
Kings, princes, dukes, and knights, as well as ordinary men and women, came from all over France and Europe on pilgrimage to Mont Saint Michel, "the marvel of the West".
The Mont Saint Michel is situated in a bay of 40 000 hectares, traversed by three rivers, the Couesnon, the Sée and the Sélune, and washed twice a day by the tides.
The tides are caused by the Moon's gravitational pull which inflates the surface of the seas and oceans as well as changing the configuration of the coast and sometimes, as in the case of the bay of Saint Michel, accentuating currents and waves.
When the pull of the moon is at its strongest, at full moon, we find ourselves in the period of high seas and high tides.
At such times, the sea covers the more than 15 kilometres from its low point at the coast as far as Saint Michel, repeating this incessant movement twice a day.
A magnificent natural spectacle, but also dangerous for careless people venturing into the bay, who can be swept away by the sudden rising of the tide which can move at the speed of a galloping horse or engulfed by moving sands.
From the Middle Ages on, pilgrims to Saint Michel, well aware of the dangers, talked of the Mont as being "at the mercy of the sea". However, today yet another danger threatens the Mont Saint Michel "at the mercy of the earth".
From the Xth Century, the Dukes of Normandy began constructing a new Church and in 966 the Benedictine Order was established on the Mont Saint Michel.
Under their supervision, the Romanesque Abbey was constructed in the XIth Century.: construction was to take sixty years.
Partially destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt, with the help of the French King, Philippe Augustes, in the XIIIth Century: this construction and those that followed until the end of the XVth Century display a new architectural style, soaring skywards with the help of immense buttresses and wrought stonework: the Gothic style was born.
Mont Saint Michel was then at its apogee and its spiritual and intellectual influence was immense throughout the whole of Christendom.
Kings, princes, dukes, and knights, as well as ordinary men and women, came from all over France and Europe on pilgrimage to Mont Saint Michel, "the marvel of the West".
The Mont Saint Michel is situated in a bay of 40 000 hectares, traversed by three rivers, the Couesnon, the Sée and the Sélune, and washed twice a day by the tides.
The tides are caused by the Moon's gravitational pull which inflates the surface of the seas and oceans as well as changing the configuration of the coast and sometimes, as in the case of the bay of Saint Michel, accentuating currents and waves.
When the pull of the moon is at its strongest, at full moon, we find ourselves in the period of high seas and high tides.
At such times, the sea covers the more than 15 kilometres from its low point at the coast as far as Saint Michel, repeating this incessant movement twice a day.
A magnificent natural spectacle, but also dangerous for careless people venturing into the bay, who can be swept away by the sudden rising of the tide which can move at the speed of a galloping horse or engulfed by moving sands.
From the Middle Ages on, pilgrims to Saint Michel, well aware of the dangers, talked of the Mont as being "at the mercy of the sea". However, today yet another danger threatens the Mont Saint Michel "at the mercy of the earth".
UNESCO w.h.s. :
Mont Saint-Michel and its bay
Date of inscription : 1979
Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stand the 'Wonder of the West', a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. Built between the 11th and 16th centuries, the abbey is a technical and artistic tour de force, having had to adapt to the problems posed by this unique natural site.
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