MONT SAINT-MICHEL
Mont Saint-Michel CEnglish: Saint Michael’s Mount) is an island commune in Normandy, France. It is located approximately one kilometre (just over half a mile) off the country’s northwestern coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. 247 acres in size, the island has a population of 44 (2009).
the eighth century AD has been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. The structural composition of the town exemplifies the feudal society that constructed it. On top God, the abbey and monastery, below this the Great halls, then stores and housing, and at the bottom, outside the walls.
landmarks, Mont Saint-Michel and its bay are part of the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sitesand more than 3 million people visit it each year. The wealth and influence of the abbey extended to many daughter foundations, including St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. However, its popularity and prestige.
The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times, and since
The abbey was closed and converted into one One of France’s most recognisable
Reformation, and by the time of the French Revolution there were scarcely.
Our agriculture remained under developed for a long time. We did not produce enough food for our people. Our country had to buy food-grains from other countries, but the things are changing now. India is producing more food-grains than its needs. Some food-grains are being sent to other countries.
Green Revolution has been brought about in the agricultural field. Now our country is self-sufficient in food-grains. It is now in a position to export surplus food-grains and some other agricultural products to other countries. Great sociological and strategic improvements have been made in. agriculture through our five year plans. India is an agricultural country. About seventy percent of our population depends on agriculture.
“The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.�
Abbey Design In the 11th century, William de Volpiano, the Italian architect who had built the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy, was chosen by Richard II of Normandy to be the building contractor. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey, daringly placing the transept crossing at the top of the mount. Many underground crypts and chapels had to be built to compensate for this weight; these formed the basis for the supportive upward structure that can be seen today. Today Mont Saint-Michel is seen as a Romanesque style church. Robert de Thorigny, a great supporter of Henry II of England (who was also Duke of Normandy), reinforced the structure of the buildings and built the main façade of the church in the 12th century. In 1204, the Breton Guy de Thouars, allied to the King of France, undertook the siege of the Mount. After having set fire to the village and having massacred the population, he was obliged to beat a retreat under the powerful walls of the abbey. Unfortunately, the fire which he himself lit extended to the buildings, and the roofs fell prey to the flames. Horrified by the cruelty and the exactions of his Breton ally, Philip Augustus offered Abbot Jourdain[disambiguation needed] a grant for the construction of a new Gothic-style architectural set which included the addition of the refectory and cloister. Charles VI is credited with adding major fortifications to the abbey-mount, build-
Mont Saint-Michel was previously connected to the mainland via a tidal causeway, i.e., a trackway covered at high tide and revealed at low tide. This connection has been altered over the centuries. The coastal flats have been polderised to create pastureland, thus the distance between the shore and the south coast of Mont SaintMichel has decreased, and the Couesnon River has been canalised, reducing the dispersion of the flow of water, and thereby encouraging a silting-up of the bay. In 1879, the tidal causeway was converted into a raised or dry causeway. This prevented the tide from scouring the silt around the mount. On 16 June 2006, the French prime minister and regional authorities announced a €164 million project (Projet Mont-SaintMichel)[5] to build a hydraulic dam using the waters of the river Couesnon and of tides to help remove the accumulated silt deposited by the rising tides, and to make Mont Saint-Michel an island again. The project’s completion is scheduled for 2015. [6] The construction of the dam began in 2009 and is now complete[when?]. The project also included the removal of the causeway and its visitor car-park. The new car-park is on the mainland, about two kilometres (1.2 miles) or so from island. A light bridge that allows the waters to flow freely around the island will improve the efficiency of the now operational dam.
Now a rocky tidal island, in prehistoric times the Mont was on dry land. As sea levels rose, erosion reshaped the coastal landscape, and several outcroppings of granite or granulite emerged in the bay, having resisted the wear and tear of the ocean better than the surrounding rocks. These included Lillemer, the Mont-Dol, Tombelaine (the island just to the north), and Mont Tombe, later called Mont SaintMichel. The Mont has a circumference of about 960 meters and is 92 metres (301 feet) above sea level at its highest point. The tides can vary greatly, at roughly 14 metres (46 ft) between high and low water marks.
Popularly nicknamed “St. Michael in peril of the sea” by medieval pilgrims making their way across the flats, the mount can still pose dangers for visitors who avoid the causeway and attempt the hazardous walk across the sands from the neighbouring coast. Polderisation and occasional flooding have created salt marsh meadows that were found to be ideally suited to grazing sheep. The well-flavoured meat that results from the diet of the sheep in the pré salé (salt meadow) makes agneau de pré-salé (salt meadow lamb) a local specialty that may be found on the menus of restaurants that depend on income from the many visitors.
HISTORY Mont Saint-Michel was used in the sixth and seventh centuries as an Armorican stronghold of Gallo-Roman culture and power until it was ransacked by the Franks, thus ending the trans-channel culture that had stood since the departure of the Romans in AD 460. From roughly the fifth to the eighth century, Mont Saint-Michel belonged to the territory of Neustria, and in the early ninth century was an important place in the marches of Neustria. Before the construction of the first monastic establishment in the 8th century, the island was called Mont Tombe (Latin: tumba). According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared in 708 to St. Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel’s instruction until Michael burned a hole in the bishop’s skull with his finger Unable to defend his kingdom against the assaults of the Vikings, the king of the Franks agreed to grant the Cotentin peninsula and the Avranchin, including MontSaint-Michel, to the Bretons in the 867 Treaty of Compiègne. This marked the beginning of the brief period of Breton possession of the Mont. In fact, these lands and Mont Saint-Michel were never really included in the duchy of Brittany and remained independent bishoprics from the newly created Breton archbishopric of Dol. When Rollo confirmed Franco as archbishop of Rouen, these traditional dependences of the Rouen archbishopric were retained in it.
Mont Saint-Michel is an island commune in Normandy, France. It is located approximately one kilometre off the country’s northwestern coast, at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. Now the most beutuful and world historical architectual bulding in france can be seen in this editorial. the beuty can be found heree visually in this editorial. Mont Saint-Michel’s resolute resolute resistance inspired the French, especially Joan of Arc.