Mont-Saint Michel
Timeline
• 966: a community of
Benedictines settled on the rock
at the request of the Duke of
Normandy and the pre-
Romanesque church was built
before the year one thousand
• 11th century: the Romanesque
abbey church was founded over
a set of crypts where the rock
comes to an apex, and the first
monastery buildings were built
up against its north wall
• 12th century: the Romanesque
buildings were extended to the
west and south
• 13th century: a donation by the
King of France, Phillip Augustus,
in the wake of his conquest of
Normandy, enabled a start to be
made on the Gothic section of the
“Merveille”: two three story
buildings, crowned by the
cloister and the refectory
• 14th century: war made it
necessary to protect the abbey
behind a set of military
constructions, enabling it to hold
out against a siege lasting 30
years
• 15th Century: The Romanesque
chancel of the abbey church
which was broken down in 1421
was replaced by the Gothic
Flamboyant Chancel
 Timeline cont.
• 19th century: it was turned into a prison during the days of
the French Revolution and Empire
• 1979: UNESCO classed Mont Saint Michel as a world
heritage
• 1996: it celebrated the 1000 th anniversary of the monastic
• 2001: Friars and sisters from “Les Fraternites Monastiques
de Jerusalem” have been living in Mont Saint Michel
WHO WHEN
• William de Volpiano, the Italian • 11th Century
architect who built the Abbey of
Fecamp Normandy, was chosen as the WHY
building contractor by Richard II of • St. Michael instructed Aubert to build a
Normandy in the 11th century. church on the rocky islet.

WHAT
• The Abbey and Mont Saint Michelle
– Built of Granite and in some places
limestone

WHERE
• Normandy, France
– At the mouth of the Couesnon River
 Engineer
• In prehistoric times Mont-Saint • Known as the “Merveille de
Michel’s bay was land l’Occident” or wonder of the
• Sea levels rose; erosion shaped Western World
the coastal landscape over • The granite used to build the
millions of years
Abbey was transported by boat
• Known as the tidal island from the nearby isles of Chausey
• Mont-Saint Michel is made of
• Construction on the original
pure granite
Abbey took more than 500 years,
• When the Abbey was placed on
top of the mount crypts and from 1017 to 1521
chapels had to be built to
compensate for its weight
• In the 12th century the structure
of the building was reinforced
and the main face of the church
was also built
 Architecture
• No two castles are the same, but they all have
similar basic parts: curtain wall or outer curtain
wall, arrow slits, dungeons, spire, and court yard.
• Photo shows: inner curtain wall, spire, and arrow
slits. Spire can be seen from the castle’s court
yard.
Gothic
• mid 12th century- 15th century
• A word used by Italian
Renaissance writers as a
derogatory term for all art and
architecture of the middle ages
• Extremely heavy structures and
tended to push the walls out ward
• The chevet-the complex forms at
the east end of the church that
includes the semicircle aisle
known as the ambulatory, the
chapels that radiate from it, and
the lofty polygonal apse
encircling the end of the
sanctuary
• Clerestory (upper part of the
nave, containing windows)
Romanesque
• Late 10th – mid 12th century
• Known by its massive quality, its
thick walls, round arches, sturdy
piers, groin vaults, large towers
and decorative arcading
• The word was used to describe
the style which was identifiably
Medieval and prefigured to be a
continuation of the Roman
tradition of building
• The term Romanesque was first
given to this type of architecture
in the 19th century due to its
similarities between the barrel
vault and the Roman arch