Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
gardens below (where this tour will end).
• Now enter the...
Abbey Church:
Sit on a pew near the altar, under the little statue of the Archangel
Michael (with the spear to defeat dragons and evil, and the scales to evaluate your soul).
Monks built the church on the tip of this rock to be as close to heaven as possible. The
downside: There wasn't enough level ground to support a sizable abbey and church. The
solution: Four immense crypts were built under the church to create a platform to support
each of its wings. While most of the church is Romanesque (round arches, 11th century),
the light-filled apse behind the altar was built later, when Gothic arches were the rage. In
1421,thecryptthatsupportedtheapsecollapsed,takingthatendofthechurchwithit.Few
of the original windows survive (victims of fires, storms, lightning, and the Revolution).
In the chapel to the right of the altar stands a grim-looking statue of the man with the
vision to build the abbey (St. Aubert). Take a spin around the apse, and find the suspended
pirate-looking ship and the glass-covered manhole (you'll see it again later from another
angle).
• After the church, enter the...
Cloisters:
A standard feature of an abbey, this was the peaceful zone that connected
various rooms, where monks could meditate, read the Bible, and tend their gardens (grow-
ing food and herbs for medicine). The great view window is enjoyable today (what's the
tide doing?), but it was of no use to the monks. The more secluded a monk could be, the
closer he was to God. (A cloister, by definition, is an enclosed place.) Notice how the
columnsarestaggered.Thisefficientdesignallowedthecloisterstobesupportedwithless
building material (a top priority, given the difficulty of transporting stone this high up).
The carvings above the columns feature various plants and heighten the Garden-of-Eden
ambiencethecloisterofferedthemonks.Thestatuesofvarioussaints,carvedamongsome
columns, were de-faced—literally—by French revolutionaries.
• Continue on to the...
Refectory:
This was the dining hall where the monks consumed both food and the
word of God in silence—one monk read in a monotone from the Bible during meals (pul-
pit on the right near the far end). The monks gathered as a family here in one undivided
space under one big arch (an impressive engineering feat in its day). The abbot ate at the
headtable; guestssatatthetable inthemiddle. Theclever columnsarethinbutverydeep,
allowing maximum light while offering solid support. From 966 until 2001, this was a Be-
nedictine abbey. In 2001, the last three Benedictine monks checked out, and a new order
of monks from Paris took over.
• Stairs lead down one flight to a...
