Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Round Stone Relief Sculpture of St. Michael:
This scene depicts the legend of
Mont St-Michel: The archangel Michael wanted to commemorate a hard-fought victory
over the devil with the construction of a monumental abbey on a nearby island. He chose
tosendhismessagetothebishopofAvranches(St.Aubert),whosawMichaeltwiceinhis
dreams. But the bishop did not trust his dreams until the third time, when Michael drove
his thumb into the bishop's head, leaving a mark that he could not deny.
• Continue down the stairs another flight to the...
Guests' Hall:
St. Benedict wrote that guests should be welcomed according to their
status. That meant that when kings (or other VIPs) visited, they were wined and dined
withoutahintofmonasticausterity.Thisroomonceexplodedincolor,withgoldstarsona
blue skyacross the ceiling. (The painting ofthis roomwassaid tobethe model forSainte-
ChapelleinParis.)Thefloorwascomposedofglazedred-and-greentiles.Theentirespace
was bathed in glorious sunlight, made divine as it passed through a filter of stained glass.
Thebigdoublefireplace,keptoutofsightbyhangingtapestries,servedasakitchen—walk
under it and see the light.
• Hike the stairs through a chapel to the...
Hall of the Grand Pillars:
Perchedonapointyrock,thehugeabbeychurchhadfour
sturdy crypts like this to prop it up. You're standing under the Gothic portion of the abbey
church—this was the crypt that collapsed in 1421. Notice the immensity of the columns
(15 feet around) in the new crypt, rebuilt with a determination not to let it fall again. Now
look up at the round hole in the ceiling and recognize it as the glass manhole cover from
the church altar above.
• To see what kind of crypt collapsed, walk on to the...
Crypt of St. Martin:
Thissimple11th-centuryRomanesquevaulthasminimalopen-
ings, since the walls needed to be solid and fat to support the buildings above. As you
leave, notice the thickness of the walls.
• Next, you'll find the...
Ossuary
(identifiable by its big treadwheel): The monks celebrated death as well as
life. This part of the abbey housed the hospital, morgue, and ossuary. Because the abbey
graveyard was small, it was routinely emptied, and the bones were stacked here.
During the Revolution, monasticism was abolished. Church property was taken by
theatheisticgovernment,andfrom1793to1863,MontSt-MichelwasusedasanAlcatraz-
type prison. Its first inmates were 300 priests who refused to renounce their vows. (Victor
Hugocomplainedthatusingsuchaplaceasaprisonwaslikekeepingatoadinareliquary.)
The big treadwheel—the kind that did heavy lifting for big building projects throughout
the Middle Ages—is from the decades when the abbey was a prison. Teams of six pris-
