The story of Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey

Legend says this abbey began with a dream that came three times. The archangel Michael ordered Aubert, bishop of Avranches, to build an oratory on the rock then called Mont Tombe, and is said to have left his finger mark on the bishop's skull, which is still displayed in Avranches with such a scar.

On 16 October 709, Aubert dedicated the church and placed twelve canons here. The Vikings captured the Mont in 847 and the monks departed, but in 966 Duke Richard I of Normandy installed Benedictine monks, and that year is counted as the abbey's founding.

In 1204 a Breton army set fire to the village and the flames badly damaged the abbey; the French king then funded a new Gothic complex, and the Merveille, with its refectory and cloister, was completed in 1228. During the French Revolution the abbey became a prison and remained one until 1863. Services still take place here, and in 2010 it drew more than 1.335 million visitors.