Mount Saint-Michel

The extraordinary architecture of Mount Saint-Michel and its bay are the most popular sights of Normandy and one of the first of France, with about 3 200 000 visitors per year. A statue of St. Michael placed on top of the minster leads to 170 meters high. Several buildings and homes of the site are, as individuals, classified as historical monuments (the parish church since 1909, for example) or listed in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments.
The history of the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel back, it is believed, to the year 708, when Aubert, bishop of Avranches, had a building on Mount Tomb shrine in honor of San Miguel Arcangel (Saint-Michel). In the X century Benedictine monks settled in the abbey and the village has been formed to your feet. During the Hundred Years War, between France and England, the Mont Saint-Michel was an impregnable fortress, resisting all attempts to take it in English and is, therefore, a symbol of French national identity. After the dissolution of religious orders dictated by the French Revolution of 1789 until 1863 the Mount was used as prison. Declared historical monument in 1987, the site since 1979 appears in the list of World Monuments of UNESCO.