The Mont-Saint-Michel is a small granite island between Normandy and Brittany, about one mile from the coast.
The bishop of Avranches, St Aubert, consecrated in 708 a small church on the island and dedicated it to the Archangel Michael. The Benedictine abbey was founded in 966 by the Duke of Normandy.
The Romanesque church and a Gothic Benedictine abbey, on top of the island, were built between the 11th and 16th centuries. On the foot of the island there is a small village.
After the French Revolution (1789), the abbey was closed becoming a prison until 1863.