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 Blbl.N'/msfLlKi1i9.fii60. £4.Cenv^,jJ 
 
 Miniature taken from the breviary of Pierre II, 
 duke of Britanyj(XV"' century).
 
 DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE 
 
 OF 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 By EDOUARD CORROYER 
 
 ARCHITECT TO THE GOVERNMENT 
 
 PARIS 
 
 GENERAL LIBRARY OF ARCHITECTURE AND OF PUBLIC WORKS 
 BUCHER ET C^" 
 
 51, RUE DES ÉCOLES, 51 
 
 1883
 
 c
 
 DC 
 
 I 
 
 ■=i- HISTORICAL NOTICE
 
 Fig. 3. 
 Stamp of pilgrimage found at Mout Saint-Michel.
 
 DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE 
 
 OF 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 (1) 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTICE 
 
 The rock which rises majestically in the middle of the 
 immense estuary extending from the coasts of Normandy on 
 the north to those of Britanny on the south and the sea on 
 the north-west has been called Mont Saint-Michel from the 
 eighth century. 
 
 There does not exist on the old rock any construction 
 built before the eleventh century, therefore there is no proof 
 of the existence of buildings erected before that time. 
 
 (1) Quoted partly from a book of tlie author : The descri'ption of 
 the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel and its envù'ons preceded by an 
 hislorical notice, Paris, 1877. This worli has been subscribed to by 
 the Minister of public instruction and fine arts, and crowned by the 
 Institute, tlie Academy of inscriptions et [belles-lettres. Concourse 
 of the national antiquities of 1878.
 
 8 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 However, having respect to the old traditions which are to 
 be taken into account it is interesting to call to mind some 
 parts of Dom Jean Huynes's (1) writings, relating to the 
 foundation of the primitive sanctuary erected by Saint-Aubert 
 in honour of the archangel Saint-Michel, as well as the prin- 
 cipal events which happened during the first period of the 
 existence of the Abbey, i. e. from the beginning of the eighth 
 to the end of the eleventh century. 
 
 According to the author, Saint-Aubert, a bishop of Avran- 
 ches erected, at the commencement of the eighth century a 
 church in honour of Saint-Michel who had appeared to him 
 several times in his dreams: u ... In 708, Saint-Aubert who 
 had overcome, with the help of God, all the difticulties atten- 
 ding the building of his church, and who knew the dimen- 
 sions which the archangel Saint-Michel wished, worked at 
 it himself. He did not build it magnificently nor with great 
 art, but he gave it the form of a grotto wishing it to be like 
 Ihe church which the glorious Saint-Michel had dug him- 
 self in the rock of Mont-Gargan, and desiring to intimate 
 by these means that God does not ask for splendour and 
 magnificence in visible temples but from our hearts which 
 arc the temples of the Holy Spirit... » 
 
 After the consecration o!" the chapel on tbe sixteenth of 
 October 701», Saint-Aubert founded the Abbey of Mont Saint- 
 Michel by establishing a college of twelve clerks or canons 
 to celebrate divine service. . He conferred on them goods 
 and chattels sullicient for their food and clothing, and added 
 the villages of Huynes and Genest for that same purpose. 
 
 (1) General history of Ihe Abbey of MontSaint-Michel called ihe 
 2)eril of the sea, diocese oj Avranches, province of Normandy^ etc. 
 xN'alioiiiil lil)rary, frcnch fonts, a" lS9t7 and 18948.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 9 
 
 Having thus provided for the necessities of the canons by 
 these means, there remained a difficulty about the water 
 supply, for during his life he had found there was always 
 a scarcity of fresh water on the mountain. Therefore he 
 and those who were with him began to pray and implore our 
 lord through the intercession of the archangel Saint-Michel 
 to show them a fountain of freshwater, as they would serve 
 him henceforth in that place... The archangel appeared to 
 the bishop and showed him at the foot of the rock a fountain 
 at which not only have thirsty ones quenched their thirst, 
 but also at which many infirm and fever striken persons, 
 after drinking the water, have recovered their health. From 
 that time the fountain was called Saint-Aubert, and it 
 was used until cisterns were invented... It is surrounded by 
 a high tower. On going down to the lower rooms under 
 the cloister, one can see a large flight of steps closed in by 
 walls on either side and by which the former inhabitants 
 went down from the monastery to draw water... 
 
 « The apparition of the Archangel saint Michel to Saint- 
 Aubert soon spread far and wide. Pilgrims came to visit 
 the Abbey from distant provinces... the pope, the king of 
 France and the Hibernians sent holy relics... The rock 
 was then called the Mont Saint-Michel and surnamed the 
 peril of the sea, not because the sea dashes idly against it, 
 but because the ebb and flow washing away on the shingle 
 the paths to it cause them to be dangerous to strangers... » 
 (don Jean Huynes). 
 
 The celebrity of the Mont Saint-Michel increased until the 
 end of the ninth century; but after the death of Charlemagne, 
 the Normans invaded his dismembered empire, and having 
 as their cheif the formidable Rollo surnamed the Walker,
 
 40 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 they devastated western Neustria. From this time dates the 
 origin of the town which still exists, and which was esta- 
 bhshed by some homeless families looking for a shelter on 
 the Mont Saint-Michel. 
 
 In the tenth century RoUo made peace, at Saint-Glair- 
 sur-Epte, with king Gharles-the-Simple. This prince gave 
 him his daughter Giselle and the province of Neustria which 
 the new duke named Normandy. 
 
 In 966, Rollo's grandson, Ilichard-sans-Peur, established 
 on Mont Saint-Michel the bénédictine monks who, from 
 Mount- Gassin (where about 529 saint Benoit had establish- 
 ed their first monastery) overspread all Europe and be- 
 came the most justly celebrated of the monks of that time. 
 
 Richard II, duke of Normandy, son of Richard-sans-Peur, 
 founded in d020 the church of which the transepts and four 
 arcades of the nave are still existing (1). 
 
 Hildebert II, fourth abbot from 1017 to 1023, was « en- 
 trusted by Richard with the details of the works; he paid 
 particular attention to the foundation... » (de Gerville). 
 
 After many vicissitudes, the church commenced in 1020, 
 was finished in 1135 by Bernard « a professed monk of the 
 abbey of the Bee and a prior of Gremont, who ordered a 
 beautiful, high and strong tower to be built on the four 
 large pillars of the chancel... » (don Jean Huyncs); the 
 building was not damaged by the fire kindled by the rebel 
 inhabitants of Avranches in 1138, which burnt to the ground 
 the town and the monastery the buildings of which were at 
 that time on the north west of the basilica. After its com- 
 
 (1) The chancel of the church has been rebuilt in the XV"" century 
 and the three first arcades of the nave were destroyed at the end 
 of the XyiII"- century.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 11 
 
 pletion , the church was composed of the chancel , the 
 transepts and the nave, having seven arcades, terminated on 
 the west by a front having three doors and over the prin- 
 cipal one, a large window lighting the central nave. There 
 was a court in front laid out over the foundations built by 
 Hildebert seconded by Robert de Torigni, after his election, 
 which marked a period of great prosperity for the Abbey. 
 During the thirty-two years this eminent abbot governed 
 it, 1154 to 1186, the study of science, literature and poetry 
 received a considerable impulse. He greatly enlarged the 
 monastery by building the hostelry and the infirmary on 
 the south and on the west, around the Roman works, va- 
 rious buildings joining together the otiices from the south 
 to the north, and over which he constructed two towers 
 joined by a porch in front of the romanesque church. 
 
 To the end of the XII'" century, the Abbey was not dama- 
 ged by fires caused by men or by lightning; but the confla- 
 gration of 1203 was terrible. Gui de Thouars unable to take 
 the Mont Saint-Michel set the houses of the town on fire ; 
 the flames reached the building and every part was burnt 
 down, except the church, the walls and the vaults. The 
 abbots, successors of Robert de Torigni, follo\^ed his exam- 
 ple not only by raising up again and maintaining the church 
 and the Abbey, but, be it said to their praise, by buil- 
 ding the magnificent edifices of the north, named from 
 the beginning the Merveille and which were all constructed 
 at one time, thanks to the liberality of Philippe Auguste. 
 
 The Merveille was begun in 1203 by Jourdain XVII'" abbot, 
 1191 to 1212; he built the room of the Almonry, the 
 Cellar and began the Refectory above the Almonry which 
 Raoul des Isles finished from 1212 to 1218. Thomas des
 
 ,2 MONT SAINT-MIC-HEL 
 
 Chambres completed the room of the Chevaliers and the 
 lateral gallery giving more space for walking. He made 
 also at that epoch the Dormitory over the Refectory 
 and finished it before his death which took place in 1225. 
 He also began the cloister which was finished by Raoul 
 de Villedieu in 12 28. This abbot modified the north front 
 of the transept of the romanesque church and established 
 at its base the Lavatorinm, in the south Gallery of the Clois- 
 ter. He built too the lateral portal which opens towards 
 the southern platform — called the Saut-Gaultier — as well 
 as the chapel Saint-Etienne on the south of the romanesque 
 foundations, near the hostelry built by Robert de Torigni. 
 
 Up to that time Mont Saint-Michel had no real fortifica- 
 tions. The Abbey and the houses grouped at its foot were 
 only protected by stone walls or by palisades. Jourdain 
 and his successors began the defensive works on the north 
 at the same time as the Merveille. Richard Tustin, 21" ab- 
 bot (1236 to 1264) continued their work. He built the large 
 building, on the east of the church, named Belle-Chaise and 
 the Residenceof the Abbot on the south, or at least he began 
 it; he ordered the fortified tower to be erected which sur- 
 rounded and rose above the fountain Sainl-Aubert and 
 joined this tower to the roads by a staircase closed by 
 embattled walls. Thanks to Saint-Louis's generosity, when 
 this king went as a pilgrim to Mont Saint-Michel, about 
 125G, this abbot was enabled to increase the fortifications 
 of the place, and to order the tower of the North to bebuilt, 
 insuring the defence of the Abbey, the entrance of which 
 he had restored. At last, about 1260, he began, on the 
 western gallery of the Cloister, the Chapter-house, the door 
 alone of which was finished.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 13 
 
 In the fourteenth century the fires which brought such 
 ruin to Mont Saint-Michel began again. In July of 1300, 
 the lightning struck the steeple of the church and ruined it 
 entirely, as well as the high towers erected by Robert de 
 Torigni. The bells were melted : the roofs of the church 
 and of several buildings were burnt and the flames spread 
 by a strong wind, communicated the fire to the town which 
 was almost entirely destroyed, Guillaume du Château, 
 XXV" abbot, from 1299 to 1344 helped by the generosity of 
 the pilgrims, repaired the disasters and, thanks to the libe- 
 rality of king Philippe-le-Uel after a pilgrimage to the mount, 
 he rebuilt the houses of the town and the warehouses of the 
 Abbey, called the Fanils, at the foot of the rock on the 
 south-west. He continued the ramparts commenced by Ri- 
 chard Turtin, and appointed the attendant Pierre de Toufou 
 the guardian of the door of the town. During the time of 
 Jean de la Porte (twenty-sixth abbot, from 1314 to 1334), 
 Mont Saint-Michel without garrison until that time, be- 
 came an important fortress was and held for the king of 
 France. 
 
 In 1350, the lightning again struck the church and set 
 fire to the Abbey. Nicolas le Vitrier (1335 to 1362), 
 quickly repaired the damages and kept the ramparts in 
 order, in spite of the continual threats of the English 
 who ravaged at that time the coasts of Normandy; he was 
 the fiist of the abbots at the same time military and reli- 
 gious governor of the town and of the Abbey, appointed by 
 Charles V who was then only duke of Normandy. 
 
 After the death of Nicolas le Vitrier, Geoffroy de Ser- 
 von, XXVIIP regular abbot, succeeded to his place and 
 dignity and obtained from king Charles V, in 1364 and 1365,
 
 14 - MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 the right to order arms to be given up by every person other 
 than the king and his brothers, entering the Abbey. He 
 ordered numerous works to be done in the church, dormi- 
 tories and other buildings of this monastery, which, on the 
 8"" of July 1374, were burnt by lightning as well as the 
 whole city. 
 
 Pierre le Roy, XXIX'" abbot, from 138640 14H, who suc- 
 ceeded to Geoffroy de Servon, was one of the most cele- 
 brated abbots of the Mont Saint-Michel, and with Roger II, 
 Robert de Torigny, Jourdain, regular abbots, and Guillaume 
 d'Estouville, first commandatory abbot, one of the greatest 
 builders and restorers of the Abbey. He rebuilt the top of 
 the tower, so called — of the Gorbins, — at the south-east 
 angle and the Merveille — restored and recovered the abba- 
 tial buildings, on the south of the church, commenced by 
 Richard Tustin about 1260, continued by his successors and 
 in part ruined by the fire of 1374, He completed the de- 
 fences of the east by erecting the Perrine tower about the 
 end of the fourteenth century. On the north of Belle-Chaise 
 he built, in the first years of the fifteenth century, the Châ- 
 telet and the small curtain which joins it to the Merveille. 
 In order to cover the Chàtelet he made the Barbican which 
 surrounds it and also the large flight of steps on the north 
 and modified the ramparts on the north and on the west. The 
 king Charles VI, during a pilgrimage to Mont Saint-Michel, 
 in 1393 confirmed Pierre le Roy in his ofiice of captain of 
 Mont Saint-Michel. Pierre le Roy is the first of the regular 
 abbots who ordered his armorial bearings to be placed on 
 the walls of the Abbey ; his coat of arms adorned the chairs 
 or the stalls of the chancel which were restored by his order 
 in 1389; according to the historians of the seventeenth and
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 15 
 
 eighteenth century this abbot had : of gueules à trois pals 
 d'or, au franc quartier de Bretague^ à la cotice denchée bro- 
 chant sur le tout. 
 
 Robert Jolivet, XXX*" regular abbot, had accompanied 
 Pierre le Roy to the council of Pisa and, when this illus- 
 trious abbot died at Bologna in 1411, he obtained from the 
 pope John XXIII the government of the Abbey; he was af- 
 terwards elected by the monks and entrusted by the king 
 with the guardianship of the Mount. During the first years 
 of his administration, he seemed inclined to follow the 
 example of his predecessors, but tiring of the severe rule of 
 his Abbey, he studied in the « Faculté des Décrets ». Re- 
 called to his Abbey which was being threatened by the 
 English who had seized upon Normandy in 1415 after the 
 battle of Agincourt, and had fortified themselves in Tombe- 
 laine in 1417, Robert Jolivet, though he had forgotten his 
 duties of abbot remembered, at the moment of danger those 
 which he was bound to fulfil as the governor of the fortress. 
 After having collected provisions of all kind, thanks to the 
 resources of the Abbey, and to the assistance which he re- 
 ceived from Charles VI, he built around the enlarged town 
 the irregular enclosure which still exists, joined its new for- 
 tifications on the east to those erected by Guillaume du Châ- 
 teau in the fourteenth century, by extending them on the 
 south and flanking them by six towers. However he soon 
 grew tired of his new military life, and in 1420 he yielded 
 to the splendid offers of the king of England. « He with- 
 drew to Rouen among the English who were masters of this 
 town and of Normandy... By accepting high office under the 
 duke of Bedford, Robert Jolivet incurred the hatred of the 
 monks whose love of their fatherland had remained stead-
 
 16 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 fast They named a successor to him... » (de Gerville). 
 The abbot Jean Gonault during the absence of his regular 
 abbot courageously governed the Abbey. « In addition to 
 these misfortunes of war, Jean Gonault saw, in 1421, on 
 the eve of Saint-Martin's feast, the whole end of this church 
 even to the stalls in the chancel fall to the ground without, 
 however, any body being injured » (don Jean Huynes). 
 
 In 1425, Louis d'Estouteville, military governor of the for- 
 tress of the Mount, built the Barbican in front of the gate of 
 the town so as to cover its approaches. The town sus- 
 tained a long but glorious siege; from 1422 to 1434 it re- 
 sisted victoriously the assaults of the English. In 1435 they 
 tried a last assault : routed by the gairison and the knights, 
 defenders of the Mount, they abandoned their artillery the 
 bombards of which, now adorning the forepart of the Bar- 
 bican, second entrance door, remain as curious specimens. 
 
 During a period of about thirty years, the Abbey was in 
 the greatest distress; its property being sequestrated, it was 
 obliged to pawn its silver plate, its shrines and its reliqua- 
 ries, in order to feed the monks, the inhabitants of the town, 
 and the garrison of the fortress. This state of things lasted 
 until 1450, when after the battle of Formigny, the English 
 abandoned Normandy and were driven out of France, — 
 except Calais which they kept until 1558. 
 
 As early as 1450, it became possible to undertake the 
 works so much needed by the Abbey and Guillaume d'Es- 
 touteville, first commandatory abbot, began the chancel oi 
 the church. « He obtained from the popes several bulls 
 containing plenary indulgences... for all who should visit 
 this church of Mont Saint-Michel and give alms. By these 
 means and also with the assistance of the Abbey revenues,
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 17 
 
 they began to rebuild the chancel, which since 1421 was in 
 uins, and to rebuild it not as it was at first, but so sump- 
 tuously that if they had continued building the other parts 
 of the church with the same magnificence it would have 
 been impossible to see in France a more beautiful struc- 
 ture » (don Jean Huynes). 
 
 The cardinal d'Estouteville however gave up the idea of 
 rebuilding the whole of the church on the same plan, and 
 ordered two arcades to be made joining together the pillars 
 of the central steeple but of a dili'erent form from the others. 
 Instead of jointed arches he made buttresses in order to 
 stop the complete ruin of two of the pillars of the triumphal 
 arches which the falling of the romanesque chancel in lA2i 
 had bended and deformed. They are still in that state. 
 
 The works were interrupted in 1482 by the cardinal's 
 death. André Laure limited the work to adorning the cha- 
 pels erected by his predecessor. Guillaume de Lamps or- 
 dered the work to be continued... » Besides which, says 
 don Jean Huynes the fire of heaven having burnt the steeple 
 and melted the bells, he ordered all to be rebuilt. » This 
 citation shows that the steeple had been rebuilt with wood 
 after the falling of the stone one built in thet welfth century 
 by Bernard du Bec. According to some authors the wooden 
 spire— rebuilt by Guillaume de Lamps in 1309, was crowned 
 by a golden statue of the Archangel Saint-Michel with un- 
 furled wings... 
 
 Jean de Lamps, XXXIY'" and last regular abbot, 1313 to 
 1523, recommence dthe works of the chancel, left unfinished 
 since his brother's death, « He ordered the whole of the 
 building which covers the big altar, to be finished even 
 from the top of the first pane of glass. This was done , 
 
 2.
 
 18 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 panes of glasses , pillars, vaults and roofs were rebuilt as 
 they stand now » (don Jean Huynes). This magnificent 
 chancel, finished in 1521 was the last of the remarkable 
 constructions of Mont Saint-Michel. We may however re- 
 mark that about 1530, the lieutenant of the king Francis I" 
 ordered the tower or bastillon Gabriel to be erected in the 
 place where the mount now is. The name was taken from 
 its author Gabriel du Puy. The object was to complete the 
 defences of the Abbey on the west where the rock can 
 be used. At that time a small work was built near the Bar- 
 bican of the gate of the town. It formed the Avancée of 
 the place and was used as the guardhouse of the burghers 
 of the Mount. The ramparts were altered, principally 
 those of the projecting tower on the east. 
 
 The succeeding abbots ceased building, and several of 
 them showed the greatest dislike to keep up the buildings 
 erected by their predecessors, A fire happened in 1564 
 which burnt a great part of the monastery; five years after 
 no repairs were begun and a decree of the Rouen parliament 
 was necessary to compel the abbot François le Roux to do the 
 necessary works. He being dissatisfied exchanged his Ab- 
 bey with Arthur de Cossé, bishop of Goutances; the zeal of 
 whom was not greater than Ihat of his predecessor. The 
 cardinal de Joyeuse who succeeded him was not more dis- 
 posed to make the necessary repairs. In 1594, the light- 
 ning fell again on the steeple, burnt a part of its timber- 
 work and that of the church. Other damages were done. 
 Another decree of Parliament was necessary to compel the 
 Abbot to repair these buildings. 
 
 During the wars of the Ligue, the abbots of the Mount 
 bad too often to protect their Abbey against the attacks of
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 49 
 
 the Huguenots to think of enlarging or even of repairing 
 the buildings. However the decree published by the Rouen 
 parliament, on the 12"" of September 1602, forced the gene- 
 ral intendants of the Abbey, the sir of Brévent and Jean 
 de Surtainville to erect the massive tower which still 
 exists. 
 
 Fivenew bells were put in the steeple. 
 
 In 1615, Henri de Lorraine, at the age of five years, was 
 named by Louis XHI the seventh commendataire. His father 
 Charles de Lorraine, duke of Guise, ordered repairs in the 
 Abbey to be made in 1616 and, in 1618, in order to streng- 
 then the western part of the buildings erected at the end of 
 the twelfth century, by Robert de Torigni, he ordered a 
 buttress to be made, which cost 14000 pounds ; on the 
 top of this buttress one can still see an escutcheon with the 
 Lorraine arms. 
 
 During these troubled times, we remark a great relaxation 
 in the customs of the monks ; in 1622 the confusion seemed 
 insufferable, and on the 27'" October of 1622 they were suc- 
 ceeded by the Benedictine monks of the congregation of 
 Saint-Maur. 
 
 The new inhabitants of Mont Saint-Michel kept the buil- 
 dings from going to ruin but they do not seem to have taken 
 any great care to keep them intact. In 1627, they built a 
 wind mill on the bastillon Gabriel and made many inte- 
 rior changes. Many marks of their dissensions are unfortu- 
 nately visible and but few of their works are to be found 
 now. 
 
 In 1629, D. de Fiesque, the agent of the duke of Lorraine 
 divided in two the magnificent room of the Dormitory and 
 under the pretext of increasing the light of the cells, sapped
 
 "20 MONT SAIM-Mir.HEL 
 
 the interior splayings of the windows by cutting the small 
 columns of the arches which adorn the walls. 
 
 Jacques de Souvré and the sir de la Chastièrehad obtained 
 from Louis XIV the permission that the guard of the castle 
 and its government should be intrusted to the Abbot The 
 garrison consisted of only four or five soldiers. Louis XV 
 took one part of the Abbey and confined prisoners in the 
 dungeons; there were eighteen in 1776. In 1745, Victor de 
 la Castagne, better known by the name of Dubourg, was 
 shut up in the cage built, it is said, by Louis XI to imprison 
 the famous cardinal La Ballue. This celebrated cage, called 
 iron-cage, though it was of wood, was destroyed in 1777 by 
 the comte d'Artois (Charles X) during his visit to Mont Saint- 
 Michel. 
 
 In 1776 after a fire by lightning, the portal of the church 
 was split and threatened ruin; four of the seven arcades 
 of the nave were destroyed and the romanesque portal of 
 Robert de Torigni had as a substitute a front in the slyle of 
 that epoch: called Jésuites style. In 171)0 the monks were 
 dispersed and the whole Abbey was transformed in to 
 a prison in which the Revolution crammed three hundred 
 priests of the dioceses of Avranches, Goutances and Rennes. 
 
 In 181 1 Napoleon the First converted Mont Saint-Michel in 
 a house of CDn'ectton, and Louis XVIII made it a central 
 pr.'son and house of correction. Since those sad times, the 
 works which have been done have only been of a partiel 
 and profane character. 
 
 The old Hostelry — built by Robert de Torigni — which 
 had become a prison foi' women, collapsed in 1817 and thi'ca- 
 tencd during a long time to drag with it the ruin of the 
 south west part of the building. The magnificent halls of
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 21 
 
 the Merveille were divided into floors in which were huddled 
 the prisoners and their looms. The church itself sufTered 
 the most profane transformations; the chancel was alone 
 spared and kept its altar, which saved this part of the church 
 from the ravages of the fire in -1834, which wrought the 
 greatest damages in the romanesque nave. This was the 
 thirteenth fire since the foundation of the Abbey, 
 
 Restorations were undertaken from 1838 to 1850: three 
 pillars in the south part were restored, but they have not the 
 romanesque character of the other pillars of the nave which 
 they tried to imitate. The other burnt parts were hidden 
 from sight; the damages caused on the columns, walls and 
 burnt arches have been concealed with plaster and recovered 
 by a layer of mortar in siynili-granit -, cornices in peculiar 
 styles have been made with the same stuff. These repairs 
 are not sufficient, and are chiefly dangerous because these 
 replasterings, dissembling the disorders which have taken 
 place in these constructions will prevent people from seing 
 the danger of their situation and therefore they will not 
 remedy it in good time. The romanesque nave has been 
 covered by a modern wood and plaster vault, the forms 
 of which call to mind pretty nearly the works of the twelfth 
 century ; it is also in a very bad state. 
 
 A decree dated the 20'" of October 1863 suppressed the 
 prison and the Minister of the interior abandoned Mont 
 Saint-Michel which became the property of an estate. In 
 1865 the Abbey with its dependencies, was let for nine 
 years to the bishop of Coutances and Avranches, who 
 ordered partitions and planks to be made dividing into 
 work-shops the floors of the Merveille, the abbatial Logis 
 and the church; he cleaned and drained the buildings and
 
 22 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 he ordered some repairs to be made with the annual help 
 of 20000 francs which he obtained in 1865 to 1870 from Na- 
 poleon III. 
 
 In 1872, the minister of public instruction and fine arts 
 ordered the state of Mont Saint-Michel to be looked into 
 and ordered schemes of its restoration to be prepared (1). 
 The report sent to the President of the Republic was appro- 
 ved of and by a decree of the 20'" of april 1874 the estate of 
 the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel was declared an historical 
 building so as to assure its conservation. From that time, 
 the state took care not only of the great works, but assured 
 their being kept in order as well as the local reparations of 
 the buildings. They were let till 1886 to the monks of the 
 order of Saint-Edme of Pontigny, established on Mont Saint- 
 Michel since 1865. The buildings thus let are composed 
 of the old abbatial Logis only with its dependences on the 
 south. 
 
 From 1873, the minister of the pubhc instruction and 
 fine arts, through care of the commission of historical buil- 
 dings has undertaken important works of consolidation and 
 restoration (2). The object of these works has been : the 
 
 Cl) According to his decision dated of the 14''" of May 1872, the Mi- 
 nister of public instruction, of public worship and of fine arts gave 
 us this charge. The studies of the actual condition (in 1872) and of 
 the restoration belong to the Ministry and are placed in the archives 
 of the Commission of historical buildings : they have been exhil)ited 
 at the Salon of Paris in 1873, 1874 and 1875 and at the universal exlii- 
 bition of 1878. — See the illustrations 4 and 5, south front in its state 
 in 1872 and the same front supposed to be restored. 
 
 '2) The works are done under our authority and under the direc- 
 tion of M. Louvel, an architect, inspector of v^orks of historical buil- 
 dings, and by M. Fouché, contractor . of public works.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 23 
 
 construction of a strong buttress at the angle south west 
 of the buildings in order to prevent their tumbling 
 down : the underpinning of the pillars, walls and vaults 
 of the romanesque substructures as well as those added 
 on the west by Robert de Torigni in the twelfth cen- 
 tury; the restoration of the flagging at the end of the eigh- 
 teenth century, — after the suppressing of the first three 
 arcades of the nave — and forming the ground of the 
 large platform, on the west, before the actual front of the 
 church. — The old flagging was buried under a bed of 
 ground covered by a common layer which was saturated 
 with water which infiltrated in the vaults and under- 
 ground walls and thus caused great damages ; — the un- 
 derpinning of the basis of the ruined Hostelry the 
 split walls of which would have caused the destruction of 
 the southern place of the romanesque bases and adjacent 
 buildings; the construction of a counterfort to strength the 
 wall of the western front; the repairing of the chapel Saint- 
 Etienne on the south and at last, what was the most impor- 
 tant and interesting part of the undertaking works, i. e. the 
 restoration of the Cloister, begun in 1877 and entirely 
 finished in 1881. — See : Cloister. — The works were 
 continued and include principally the restoration of the 
 Dormitory, begun in 1882. 
 
 The fortified enclosure was an integral part of the out- 
 works of the Abbey and of course belonged to it; however 
 the town of Mont Saint-Michel had made the pretention of 
 owning the altered ramparts in 1855, pretention which it 
 renounced without any restriction by a deliberation dated 
 of the 13'" of October 1878, thanks to the initiative of its 
 mayor M. Leplat, an intelligent and devoted administrator
 
 24 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 the recent lost of whom has been deeply felt by the inha- 
 bitants and by his numerous friends. 
 
 The restoration of the ramparts has been commenced; 
 the Barbican before the gate of the town has been repaired ; 
 the Avancée of the Barbican and its postern have been 
 cleared from the walls and the dung hole which embarras- 
 sed it. The english bombards .— left by the Englishmen 
 routed at the time of their last attack in 1434, — ador- 
 ning the second door, but stopping the lateral postern have 
 been placed on a platform which, though it does not take 
 the place of the primitive tumbrels which they used as gun 
 carriages, allows at least the examination in every detail 
 of these curious species of the artillery of the fiflcenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The works would have certainly been cont nued, if 
 they had not been suddenly interrupted by an embank- 
 ment erected near the ramparts, in spite of the greatest 
 protests. This embankment, pompously but very impro- 
 perly called a dike (for the word dike gives an idea of pro- 
 tection, and in this case this word is a synonyme of destruc- 
 tion), has had disastrous consequences. The tumbling 
 down of a part of the small curtain of the rampart, which 
 happened in January 1881, the crevices and the cracks of 
 the towers of the king, of the I^Jscadi-e and the curtains 
 which join them, prove it too clearly and it would be chil- 
 dish to deny these destructive efiets which are the conse- 
 quence of a work as dangerous as it is of little use. 
 
 This work made with great effort offers this particularity 
 that it was not asked for by any one, not even by these who 
 were the most directly interested in its execution, /. e. by 
 the Montois. For it has been now proved that not one of
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 25 
 
 the inhabitants of the mount was in favour of or against the 
 preparatory enquiry. We must notice, that by an act 
 of authority absolutely arbitrary, the plan of the breakwater 
 or to speak more exactly of the embankment was modified 
 during its execution, without any new enquiry, and instead 
 of its finishing at the rock on the left of the entrance, it 
 rests against the walls which must give way(l). The un- 
 dertaking cannot be explained; moreover it has always been 
 without explanation ; for we cannot consider as such a slow 
 and only slightly disinterested petition or the recent and pe- 
 culiar protestation, made by some inhabitants, with the 
 form of deliberation, which contained four signatures! ! ! one 
 of which was approximately a signature, an absurd and 
 aflected fact which Monsieur Prudhomme , the immortal 
 model of ridiculous vanity and sufficiency, would not cer- 
 tainly disavow. It is impossible to take into account more 
 seriously an anonymous petition presented by a Bas-Nor- 
 mand to Messieurs les Députés, a stupid work of distracted 
 brains, the author of which, who is little indulgent 
 for mental affections, about which he speaks much, in 
 page 15 of is small treatise, is not sufficiently disguised by 
 the deception which he has prudently assumed. 
 
 Public opinion which on this occasion could be more 
 justly called public sense, has declared itself against 
 this enterprise with as much strength as unanimity. The 
 papers have boldly spoken about it from 1879, but without 
 any result till now. However, we can believe that its en- 
 deavours, which are always generous and fair, will have 
 
 (1) We have exhibited this year at the Salon — Arcliitecture — 
 plans and drawings, made with the greatest care and exactness, 
 showing the ramparts in 1879, what they are in 1883, and nothing at 
 the same lime the destructive effects of the embankment since 1879. 
 
 3
 
 26 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 their fruit and that the courageous and legitimate claims of 
 MMrs Lockroy and Jules Roche, brought before parliament 
 in 1881 and 1882, will be at last listened to and will give 
 again to Mont Saint-Michel its insular situation which will 
 assure the preservation of its ramparts, which have endu- 
 red for centuries. 
 
 The pressing works of restoration will then be recom- 
 menced with some purpose, and the commission of histo- 
 rical buildings, faithful to their traditions, will continue 
 their labours by keeping intact an edifice, unique in France 
 and which by the beauty of its buildings , its greatness, 
 and the historical remembrances it recalls to our minds, 
 presents the most beautiful specimens of the religious , 
 monastic and military architecture of our dear fatherland. 
 
 Paris, April 3, 1883.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 SOUTH FRONT 
 
 CONDITION IN 1872 AND PLAN OF RESTORATION 
 GENERAL VIEWS
 
 28 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL
 
 30 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL
 
 ITINERARY 
 
 The plans and numerous illustrations in the tex 
 give an idea of the different edifices of Mont Saint- 
 Michel ; but it is useful to supplement them by expla- 
 nations to facilitate the visit, often very quickly paid to 
 the Abbey and its surroundings. At first it is neces- 
 sarv to know where vou are, visitors o:enerallv for- 
 get to take this precaution which is necessary here to 
 see thoroughly the many buildings of which Mont 
 Saint-Michel is composed. The church can be used as 
 a compass, if this expression may be employed, for its 
 large longitudinal axis extends from east to west and of 
 course its transverse axis and its transepts go from 
 north to south. 
 
 Therefore we counsel the visitors to go first to the 
 church; we will refer to this again later on, but we 
 think that before examining details it is better to see 
 the general appearance of Mont Saint-Michel, w^hich we 
 suppose to be without the embankment which encum- 
 bers it on the south.
 
 32 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 ['■■'if-A
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 33 
 
 GENERAL VIEW 
 
 The approach to the Mount is easier at the time of the 
 neap tides, corresponding, as every one knows, with 
 the first and last quarter of the moon, because you 
 can drive there independent of the tide, for the sea 
 does not tlien surround the Mount or, in any case, does 
 not prevent crossing the shingle. You can see, on 
 arrival, the south front of Mont Saint-Michel — fig. 4 — 
 and you can always, when the sea is low, walk round 
 it. You must then go near the rock or the ramparts 
 and the sight of the Abbey is necessarily shortened, and 
 entirely changed, for being so near its most beautiful as- 
 pects are deformed. Always at low water, but principally 
 at neaptide, you can advance on the shingle on the east, 
 and see one of the most beautiful views of the Mount and 
 its whole development ; but the west and north coasts 
 are not so easy to be reached by the same means, be- 
 cause you must cross the river on the west, and the 
 shoals on the north, which it is not prudent to do with- 
 out a guide, these expeditions not being always prac- 
 ticable on account of the sands more or less moving 
 according to the tides which change and shift the 
 ground.
 
 34 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 35 
 
 We think it is better to ciioose the occasion of the 
 spring tides, especially when there is full moon, which 
 permit us to go round the Mount in a boat; visitors 
 easily find small vessels manned by fishermen of the 
 Mount, who are courageous, experienced sailors and 
 the safest guides that can be found. By embarking at 
 the gate of the town, this voyage of circumnavigation 
 may be made in less than an hour; it is the best means 
 of seeing all the beauty of the Mount. The sight changes 
 at every movement of the oars, if we can use this ex- 
 pression, and all the fronts of the old monastary seem 
 to be unrolled, offering successively the most imposing 
 and most majestic aspects, especially on the west, on 
 the north, on the northeast and on the east; it is a 
 magnificent succession of views as picturesque as can 
 be imagined, and nothing can better help the study of 
 the exterior architecture of the different edifices of the 
 Mount. 
 
 A trip made at the time of the spring tides we have 
 just spoken about, offers other advantages which will 
 be especially appreciated by artists : chiefly the advan- 
 tage of seeing Mont Saint-Michel, its Abbey, its ram- 
 parts and its shingles surrounded and covered with the 
 sea, brilliantly lighted by the moon and offering, particu- 
 larly during the beautiful summer nights, the most 
 fantastic and the most unexpected effects. But what 
 is invaluable is the incomparable view which can be
 
 36 
 
 MONT SAÎNT-MICHEL
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 37 
 
 seen either from the ramparts on the east and on the 
 north, or still better from the large upper platform on 
 the west, and which the shingles of Mont Saint-Michel 
 offer alone, i. e. the " arrival " of the sea. We use on 
 purpose this expression : the arrival of the sea, because 
 it suits alone this occasion. 
 
 The sea having withdrawn more than 12 kilometres 
 from the Mount when it is low water, arrives at the 
 moment of the surge, announcing itself by a roaring at 
 first confused and which soon becomes a frightful noise 
 and forms a formidable bar, an eddy of water, in the 
 rivers which flow on the shores and on the whole 
 extent of the vast estuary which it soon covers entirely. 
 This immense sheet of water overflowing the shores 
 not with the rapidity of a horse going full gallop, as it 
 has been hyperbolically said, but going forward by a 
 continuel movement, with an implacable strength, pro- 
 duces an extraordinary effect. 
 
 If the phenomena of the tides are always so interes- 
 ting to be studied and so curious to be seen, they are 
 especially surprising on the shores of Mont Saint-Michel, 
 where they are manifested, principally at the time of 
 the equinoxes under special conditions and present 
 majestic views which leave on our mind the liveliest 
 impressions. 
 
 When the wind forces the tide, the watersleap over 
 the first two gates of the town and bathe the English
 
 38 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 ■ ■..-.ijer, (M. 
 
 Fig. 10. — King's gate, XV^'' century. 
 (View taken from the f;atc of the Barbican, 2"'' pate.
 
 MONT SAINT-.MICHEL 39 
 
 bombards, trophies of the assault of 1434, which adorn 
 the Avancée of the town. 
 
 The sea falls almost as quickly as it rises ; an hour 
 after the retiring of the tide, you can go out of the town, 
 and a very little time afterwards, walk round the rock 
 and the ramparts. 
 
 When you have seen the general view of Mont Saint- 
 Michel under its exterior aspects, and finished your trip 
 round the island which you began on the south west, 
 you land on the south on the narrow rocky shingle or 
 on the ground which is in front of the Avancée and 
 after crossing it as well as the Barbican forming the ex- 
 terior defences, you arrive at the King's gate which 
 leads you to the town, the only street of wdiich conducts 
 you to the Abbey. 
 
 We will speak about these interesting buildings on 
 coming back, and supposing that the reader continues 
 to follow us, we will ascend the street of the town 
 while giving him some details about its origin, in order 
 to reach quickly the top of the rock and the church 
 which is going to be the point of separation for the 
 methodical visit to the Abbey and its dependencies.
 
 40 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 THE TOWN 
 
 The origin of the village or rather, according to tra- 
 dition, of the town of Mont Saint-Michel, is very old, if 
 we believe the chroniclers, who tell iis it was in the 
 tenth century, as we have seen in the historical notice. 
 The small borough had the same destiny as the Monas- 
 tery at the foot of which its houses were grouped on es- 
 carpments of rock on the east, which formed a natural 
 defence against the encroachments of the sea and 
 attacks of men. It increased continually strengthened 
 on its weak parts by palisades and at the time of the 
 rebuilding of the Edifices of the Abbey, from the thir- 
 teenth to the fourteenth century, it was likewise surroun- 
 ded by strong walls forming the first fortified enclosure 
 of the Monastery. 
 
 The town enlarged in the fifteenth century and sur- 
 rounded, from 1415 to 1420, by a wall extending more 
 on the east and on the south than elsewhere, has only 
 one entrance opening to the south, on the west side of 
 its ramparts, the gate of which is preceded by works 
 covering its approaches. After passing through the 
 narrow passages of the Avancée and of the Barbican, we 
 reach the principal gate, the King's gate, which leads 
 us to the town.
 
 MONT SAIiNT MICHEL 
 
 41 
 
 t-ii <-urro'jer, del. 
 
 Fig. 11. — Street of the Towu,
 
 43 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 The only street of the town has on each side houses 
 some of which are still as they probably were in the 
 middle ages. They do not offer any thing very curious 
 in their details ; however, by their union and their arran- 
 gement, they form a picturesque whole of which figure 1 1 
 gives an idea. 
 
 There still exists in the high part of the town some tra- 
 ces of the primitive constructions retaining romanesque 
 forms of the twelfth and thirteenth century; they are 
 the remnants of the old town built on the most elevated 
 part of the rock on the east of the Abbey or, according 
 to some historians, the ruins of a convent for women, 
 restored, it is said by Duguesclin, and near which he 
 wished a Beau Lagis to be built which his wife Tiphaine 
 de Raguenel inhabited from 1366 to 1374, during her 
 sojourn at Mont Saint-Michel. The houses of the lower 
 part of the town and those of the southern water-shed, 
 were not built at a later date than the fitteenth century. 
 The country church, built about 1440, has nothing 
 remarkable but a tomb-stone of older date than its 
 foundation. 
 
 The town has always been inhabited by iishermen : 
 but the greatest part of the dwelUngs of the old town 
 and of the new one have always been as they are now, 
 hostelries for pilgrims or shops where were sold the 
 pictures or eiiseigties da benoist Arcange Monsieur Saint- 
 Michel ^-dnd where every kind of objects of piety are still
 
 MONT S AI. NT-MICH EL 
 
 43 
 
 Ed. Corroyer, del. 
 Fi". 12. — Interior of tlie Town. — King's gate and watcli tower, 
 (View taken from tlie Hôtel Saint-Michel.)
 
 44 
 
 sold. 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 The archa3ologists give us curious information 
 aijout several of the old hostelries, among them, the 
 inn which is before the watch tower; this was the Tcte 
 d'or, very fashionable in the seventeenth century. It 
 
 Fûee . 
 
 Pro^. 
 
 Fig. 13 et 14. — Reproseiitations or enseignes of Saint-MiclicI, 
 Stamps of pilgrimage found in the Seine in Paris. 
 
 was called successively Hotel of the Tête dor and of 
 Saint-Michel^ and became afterwards the hotel Poulard^ 
 keeping however its reputation, for it is still the best 
 hostelry in the town. 
 
 The shops and the sellers of images or of quencaille- 
 rie were always very numerous at Mont Saint-Michel. 
 We have collected a great number of specimens of 
 stamps of pibjrinuKje in which there was a considerable 
 traffic in the middle ages. A part of these enseignes
 
 MONT SAINT-.MICHEL 
 
 JV. ^rra^, 
 
 Fijr, 13. — Indented mould of a etanip of pilgrimage, XV"' century 
 (belonging to V, RaméJ. 
 
 ■%,/' I 'i, ) 
 
 Fig. 16. — Moulds of Saint-Michel (XV"- century).
 
 46 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 were made in Paris, and the great quantity of them 
 found in the bed of the Seine near the bridges reserved 
 for the goldmiths, proves it absolutely. 
 
 There was also the manufacture of stamps of i^ilcjn- 
 
 Fig. 17 ct 18. — ludcutt'd iiiimld and proof in relief of a stamp of pilgrimage 
 found at Mont Saint-Michel.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 47 
 
 mage at Mont Saint-Michel, as proved by the ejiseigne 
 — fig. 3 — and the slate mould — fig. 17-18 — found 
 in the search lately made by digging in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Abbey. 
 
 The street of the small town follows very nearly the 
 line of the walls, and is on a level with the entrance till 
 it reaches the tower, named Liberty's tower, it then rises 
 quickly, winds about on the north on the slopes of the 
 rock and ends by large flights of steps on the east, at 
 the place where formerly rose the first gate of the Grand 
 Degré leading to the Barbican from the Chatelet. Some 
 very narrow lanes ascending the rock lead to the gar- 
 dens in terraces or to the highest houses and end by 
 turning to the exterior walls and to the Postern of the 
 south staircase of the Barbican of the Ghàtelet protecting 
 the entrance of the Abbey.
 
 48 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 £d. Corroyer, del, 
 
 l'irr. 19. _ Tlie Chàtclct. — Eiitrauce of Uic Abbey,
 
 iMONT SAINT-MICHEL 49 
 
 THE ABBEY 
 
 The church or BasiUca has always been the centre 
 and, as it were, the heart of the Abbey. It is the oldest 
 construction of the Mount; the different buildings and. 
 the town itself have been successively grouped around 
 it : and they make a majestic basis for the old sanc- 
 tuary of Saint-Michel and form by their assemblage a 
 magnificent whole as wonderful by its picturesque 
 situation as by the boldness of its conception and the 
 great beauty of its details. 
 
 It seemed to us necessary to begin the visit by the 
 church, in order to be able to describe clearly the edi- 
 fices of different epochs, which are placed one over the 
 other and to lead our reader in the turnings of so 
 complicated a labyrinth. 
 
 Although this manner of proceeding is not inconfor- 
 mity with the details of the description of the topo- 
 graphy of the Mount, yet it has seemed to us the most 
 rational and the most useful, because it will allow us 
 to follow the construction of the Basilica, of the buil- 
 dings of the Abbey and of the Ramparts. 
 
 The following plans — fig. 20, 21 and 22 — seem lo 
 us absolutely necessary, as well as the sections— fig. 24 
 and 25. These drawings, by giving the right idea of
 
 50 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 £^. Cciioyer-. 
 
 }oyi 
 
 / 
 
 / Fig. 20. — 1*' zone. — Gr 
 
 I I I MÈTRES 
 
 ouiid plan of the Guard Room (D), 
 of the Almonry (J) and of the Cellar (K).
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 51 
 
 the buildings placed one over the other, of their grou- 
 ping and of their forms, at different levels, will help 
 to guide the visitors without confusion in the maze of 
 their innumerable divisions. 
 
 EXPLANOTORY NOTE 
 Fig. 20. 
 
 A Claudine tower. — Ramparts. 
 
 B First fortified enclosure, or Barbican, surrounding the Châtelel and pro- 
 tecting the entrance to the Abbey. 
 
 B' Ruins of the large flight of steps. 
 
 C Châtelet, — Lower part, staircase overlooked by the Châtelet and 
 leading to the Guard Room. 
 
 D Guard Room (Belle-Chaise). 
 
 E Perrine tower. 
 
 F Proxy's office and Baillif's office of the .\bbey. 
 
 G Abbatial dwelling. 
 
 G' Lodgings of the Abbey. 
 
 G" Sainte-Catharine's chapel. 
 
 H Church yard and staircase leading to the higher church. 
 
 I Court of the Merveille, — between Belle-Chaise and the Merveille. 
 
 J Almonry Room \ 
 
 J' Ruins of a furnace > Merveille. 
 
 K Cellar ) 
 
 L Old abbatial dwellings. — Kitchens — (End of the XI'*" century). 
 
 M Gallery or Crypt of the Aquilon (Roger IF). 
 
 N Basement of the Hostelrj- (Robert de Torigni). 
 
 Passages communicating with the Hostelry. 
 
 P and P' Prisons (Tnder P' cells called Twins' cells). 
 
 Q Bases of Saint-Stephen's chapel. 
 
 R Ruin of the oldpoulain (Robert de Torigni). 
 
 S Modern poulain. 
 
 T Wall supports, built in 1862 or 1863. 
 
 U Gardens, terraces and narrow path round them. 
 
 V Solid rock.
 
 52 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 bo 
 
 \ M£TRZS 
 
 g^ Fig. 21. — S'"" zone. Ground plan of the lower church (A), of|thc 
 Refectory (K) and of the knights' hall (L).
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 53 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE 
 Fig. 21. 
 
 A Lower church or crypt, called the great pillars. 
 
 B Chapel under the north transept. 
 
 B' Chapel under the south transept (Saint-Martin). 
 
 C Basement of the romanesque nave. 
 
 C and C Charnel-house or Cemetery of the monks. 
 
 C" Romanesque under-basements (under the platform called Saut-Gaultier) 
 
 D Old cistern. 
 
 E Old abbatial buildings. — (Refectory). — End of the XI'"" century. 
 
 F Old cloister or walking-place (Roger II). 
 
 G Passages communicating with the Hostelry. 
 
 H Hostelry. ) „ , , ^ . . 
 
 : Robert de Torigni. 
 I Out buildmgs of the Hostelry. ' 
 
 J Saint Stephen's chapel. 
 
 K Refectory. \ 
 
 K' Tower of the Corbius. ( 
 
 / Merveille. 
 L Knights' hall. 
 
 M Chapel. 
 
 N Hall of the Officers and of the Government. — Bcdle-Chaise. 
 
 Perrine tower. 
 
 P Battlements of the Châtclet. 
 
 Q Court yard of the Merveille. 
 
 R Staircase leading from the court of the Merveille to the terrace S. 
 
 S Terrace of the Apse. 
 
 T Court yard of the church. 
 
 U Fortified bridge joining the lower church to the abbatial dwelling 
 
 V Abbatial dwelling. 
 
 X Lodgings of the Abbey. 
 
 Y Cisterns (XV"" century). 
 Y' Cisterns (XVI''' century). 
 
 Z Staircase leading from the underground to the higher church. 
 
 Z' Solid rock.
 
 S4 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 Fig. 2?. — 3"' zone. Ground plan of the higher church (A), of the Cloister (L) 
 and of the Dormitory (K).
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 53 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE 
 Fig. 2^2. 
 
 A Higher church, 
 A' Chancel. 
 
 A" North and south transepts. 
 / H . B . B The first three triforiums of the romanesque nave (des- 
 Remnants [ ^royed iu 1776). 
 
 found 1 t-andC Towers in front of the romanesque portal, i Robert 
 in 1875 1 C" Porch between the two towers. ( de Torigui. 
 
 under the < D Grave of Robert de Torigui and of D. .Martin de Furuicn- 
 flagging j deio (?) 
 
 of the large/ E Old court in the front of the church, 
 platform. p g^e of the hall called of Souvrc (hall of the Chapter; old 
 \ dormitory) . 
 
 G Old abbatial buildings {Dormitory: end of the XI''' century). 
 G' Actual sacristy (old dormitory). 
 H Platform of the Saut-Gaullier (lateral entrance, south of the 
 
 church). 
 I Ruins of the Hostelry (Robert de Torigui). 
 J Infirmaries. 
 
 K Dormitory. (The separations have been made by the direc- 
 tors of the prison). 
 K' The Corbius. 
 L Cloister. 
 L' Charters room. 
 L' Entrance of Chapter hall (designed and commenced in the 
 
 XIIP'' century). 
 .M Actual library (part of the old abbatial buildings, XIV" 
 
 century). 
 N Abbatial dwelling. 
 Lodgings of the Abbey. 
 P Court of the Merveille. 
 P' Terrace of the Apse. 
 
 P Court yard of the church and staircase leading to the Saut- 
 Gaullier. 
 R Kitchens (actual; of the monks, established on the wooden 
 bridge (XVi"" century).
 
 56 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 GUARD ROOM — BELLE-CHAISE 
 
 After penetrating into tlie Barbican which protects 
 the first gate and entering the Abbey — fig. 19 — by 
 the fortified staircase under the Ghâtelet — an impor- 
 tant point which we shall describe later on — we come 
 to the Guard Room, at the level of which the plan 
 of the first zone has been drawn fig. 20. This Guard 
 Room is a part of the building called Belle-Chaise, erec- 
 ted by Richard Tustin, about 1250; at that time, the 
 entrance to the Abbey was on the north side of this 
 building on which opens a magnificent door which 
 must be examined before passing through. It was clos- 
 ed by two panels, one of which was interior and the 
 other exterior; on the lateral piers of this one you can 
 still see the iron collars surrounding the posts with 
 wdiich the leaves were turned, externally. It was 
 in this Guard Room that all comers deposited their 
 arms before entering the monastery buildings, unless 
 exempted by special permission of the Prior of the 
 Abbey. In the first years of the XY"' century Pierre le 
 Roy opened a door and a postern in the north front gi- 
 ving on the court yard of the Merveille, anew entrance 
 to the building which he commenced by joining the 
 Merveille to the Ghâtelet; he built also the large chim- 
 ney which stands opposite to the entrance door.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 57 
 
 The Guard Room is vaulted and its arctiitecture, sim- 
 ple and severe is suited to its objects. It is lighted on 
 the east by a window surmounted by an oculus; in the 
 second triforium on the south a small door opens on a 
 staircase, built in the thickness of the wall, which leads 
 to one of the floors of the Perrine tower, to the door 
 keepers' room and by a detour to the large hall above. 
 In the third triforium on the south is the oblique pas- 
 sage leading by a flight of steps to the court yard of 
 the church — see plan fig, 20. 
 
 ABBATIAL BUILDINGS 
 
 The court yard of the church is formed : on the right 
 by the beautiful bases of the chancel rebuilt in the se- 
 cond half of the XV"" century by Guillaume d'Estoute- 
 ville, and by the walls of the transept of the romanesque 
 church and of the more recent constructions; on the 
 left by the abbatial buildings, begun by Richard Tus- 
 tin about 1250. They were continued, in the XIV*"" 
 century by Nicolas le Vitrier and Geofi'roy de Servon. 
 
 The lodgings of the Abbey then extended on the 
 south of the church up to the west front of the south 
 transept and w^ere composed of several buildings one 
 of which especially, the abbatial dwelUng has a grand 
 aspect. Pierre le Roy finished them about the end of the 
 XIV"" centurv.
 
 58 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 Kd- Corroyer, del 
 
 Fig. 23. — Fortified hnA'j^e. in the courl yard of llie cliurrli. (Ucstoratiou.)
 
 MONT SAINT-AFICHEL 59 
 
 At the north west angle of the abbatial dwelling, 
 towards the court yard of the church, are to be seen 
 the remnants of the arch of a bridge; this bridge 
 joined the dwelling to the lower chapels of the chancel 
 of the romanesque church; itwas ruined at the same 
 time as the romanesque chancel, in 1421. 
 
 A new bridge, the embattled parapet of which is sus- 
 tained by machicolations with rich mouldings, was built 
 lower down in the same court by the cardinal d'Estou- 
 teville at the same time as the new chancel commenced 
 in 1450. This open passage, on the level of the chapels 
 of the lower church and of one of the floors of the abba- 
 tial dwelling , affords a passage , through the lower 
 chuch, between the Buildings on the south and those 
 of the Merveille on the North; the plan of the second 
 zone has been drawn at this level — fig. 21. — We 
 give a perspective view of the fortified bridge , taken 
 from the south door of the Guard Room — flg. 23. 
 
 In the first years of the XVP*" century, Guillaume de 
 Lamps, an abbot of the Mount gave orders for the erec- 
 tion of the building joining the south transept and run- 
 ning parallel with the south side of the nave. He pulled 
 down the flights of steps leading from the Guard Room 
 to the church and he ordered the large flight of steps 
 to be made which still exists as well as the platform 
 called the Saut-Gaultier, Avhich terminates it and on 
 which opens the south Portal of the church. This abbot
 
 60 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 ordered also a wooden bridge to be erected, now worm- 
 eaten, which joins the higher church to the abbatial 
 buildings. 
 
 The construction of the building, joining the south 
 collateral of the church and the transept, as well as the 
 construction of the large flight of steps have greatly 
 modified this part of the Abbey. Until the end of the 
 XV"" century the staircase led from the court yard of the 
 church to the south lateral door. It established the ne- 
 cessary communications between the higher church and 
 the west substructions where stood the Charnel-house or 
 cemetery of the monks and in front of which was the 
 mortuary chapel, so called of the thirty wax-tapers. — 
 This was under the Saut-Gaultier, where now may be 
 seen the large wheel — the entrance to it was on the 
 east, at the foot of the south side-aisle. Some traces 
 ofe the old arrangement, before the building of the large 
 actual staircase, still exist in some parts of the under- 
 ground vaults on the south. 
 
 From the beginning of the XVP'' century to our time, 
 and after the fires of 1564 and 1594 which caused so 
 much damage, the lodgings of the Abbey underwent 
 important changes especially as regards their roofs : 
 the extent of which may be judged by a comparison of 
 figures 4 and 5.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 61 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 After ascending the large staircase leading to the plat- 
 form of Saut-Gaultier and admiring the beautiful sight 
 which you see from this eminence, you walk in the 
 Basilica by the lateral Portal opened in the south colla- 
 teral of the romanesque church. 
 
 Before visiting the higher church , you must first 
 look at the large west platform from which you can 
 perceive the sea making the horizon a splendid pano- 
 rama, and the considerable substructures which are 
 the bases of the church and of the north, west and 
 south buildings, and which give an idea of the great 
 diSiculties which the first builders had to surmount to 
 realize their monumental conceptions. 
 
 As we have seen in the historical notice, the church 
 was begun in 10'20 by Hildebert II, sixth regular abbot 
 of the Mount from 1017 to 1023, whom Richard II en- 
 trusted with the details of the works. We must attri- 
 bute to this abbot the substructures of the romanesque 
 church which, especially on the west side have gigantic 
 proportions. This part of the Mount is one of the most 
 interesting to be studied ; it shows the greatness and 
 the audacity of the work of the architect Hildebert. 
 Instead of cutting into the top of the mount lin and
 
 62 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL
 
 MONT SÂINT-MICHKL 
 
 63
 
 64 MONT SAINT-Mi;CHEL 
 
 principally in order not to diminish the majesty of the 
 pedestal, he formed a vast plateau, the centre of which 
 is on the level of the highest part of the rock and the 
 sides rest on the walls and on piers joined by vaults 
 and make a basement of perfect firmness. 
 
 The transverse section (flg. 24) shows the romanes- 
 que constructions surrounded by buildings which have 
 been successively grouped around it at different times. 
 It shows on the north and south transepts, the crypts 
 or lower chapels, which have not been cut in the roc, 
 as it has been said, but constructed in the space between 
 the declivity of the mountain and the plateau built by 
 Hildebert. 
 
 The longitudinal section, figure 25, shows the base- 
 ments of the west already referred, to and those of the 
 east. The romanesque substructures have disappeared 
 covered by those of the XV"' century at the time of the 
 construction of the enlarged chancel. 
 
 SUBSTRUCTURES 
 
 On leaving the nave by a small gate on the north and 
 descending several steps, we arrive at the primitive 
 abbatial buildings which, at the end of the XP*" century, 
 extended to the north of the church. The visitor will 
 see in succession the old Cloister or place to walk in for
 
 MO. NT S Al NT-MI (-11 EL 
 
 65 
 
 the monks, built by Roger II, in the early part of the 
 XIP" century, and at the west end, one of the floors of 
 
 Fig. ^G. — Edifice of Pioger II, on the uortli of the nave. 
 (Section from the north to the south). 
 
 the constructions of Robert de Torigni ; afterwards by 
 going down and stopping half-way he Avill observe the 
 old charnel-house or cemetery of the monks; also Saint- 
 
 6.
 
 66 
 
 .MUM SAI.NT-.MICHEL 
 
 Ed. Corroyer, I'cl. 
 
 Fig. 27. — Gallery of llie A<^m'/on{\lV'' cfiUury,.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 67 
 
 Stephen^s chapel now communicating by an opening 
 with the old chapel of the Thirty wax-tapers — under 
 the Saut-Gaultier — where is placed the great wheel used 
 to draw up the stores. Afterwards, on descending the 
 staircase, which he has left, he reaches the gallery of 
 the Aquilon, — lower cloister — he will further des- 
 cend to see the subterranean floors, the prisons and the 
 dungeons of the Abbey, the ruins of the Hostelry, as 
 well as the edifices on the west in front of the roma- 
 nesque constructions built by Robert de Torigni. This 
 part of the Abbey is very curious. Fig. 28 shows the 
 
 Fig. -1^, — Construcliuus of Robert de Turigni. — Plan of the Lasemeula. 
 
 plans of the basements — the black tints indicate the 
 romanesque parts and the grey marks the Edifices of 
 Robert de Torigni. — A is the cellar of the Hostelry,
 
 68 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 where you see on the east, A, the toothing of the decli- 
 vity of the rock reaching to the warehouses of the 
 Abbey; B' and B' the dungeons named the Twins; G a 
 passage leading from the Hostelry to the cell B and to 
 the staircase C; C the staircase leading to the above 
 prison; D the passages communicating with the dun- 
 
 Fig. 29. — Constructions of Robert tie Torigni, 
 Ground plan of the ambulatory.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 69 
 
 geons, with the prisons above, and on nearly the same 
 level, with the gallery of the Aquilon E; E the but- 
 tress built in 1618 and G that which was built in 
 1873. 
 
 The plan, fig. 29, gives the details of the same cons- 
 tructions above and at a level with the old Cloister or 
 ambulatory. A is the infirmary; B, its dependencies; 
 G, the passage joining the offices; D, the communica- 
 tion between the infirmary and the regular buildings of 
 the Abbey; E, the Gloister; F, Saint-Stephen's chapel 
 (Xlir*" century) ; G, the charnel-house or cemetery of 
 the monks; H, the staircase leading to the higher 
 church; I, the cistern; J, the buttress of 1618 and K 
 that of 1873. 
 
 The figure 30 shows the tranverse section of the ro- 
 manesque constructions; parts obliquely stippled indi- 
 cate the constructions added by Robert de Torigni ; in A 
 stands the grave of this celebrated Abbot; and in B that 
 of his successor Don Martin ; they were both found in 
 1873 under the large west platform, at the basis of the 
 towers built from 1180 to 1185 in front of the roma- 
 nesque portal. 
 
 At last by again ascending the staircases by which we 
 went down, we shall be again in the romanesque 
 church which was, as we have already stated, begun in 
 1020 and finished in 1135 by Bernard du Bee, XIIl"" Ab- 
 bot of the Mount from 1131 to 1149.
 
 MONT SAINT-MU'.HKI. 
 
 Fig. 30. — Coiistiuctions of Robert de Tovigni. 
 
 (Transverse section, from the north to the south, running parallel with 
 
 the line CD of the plans). 
 
 This immense building, erected in honour of Saint- 
 Michel and of his ancient worship, on the artificial pla- 
 teau built or commenced byHildebert,had the form of a 
 latin cross, represented by the Nave composed of seven 
 arcades, by the two transepts and lastly by the chan- 
 cel. Of the romanesque church there still exist : four 
 arcades of the nave; the pillars and the triumphal 
 arches which sustained the romanesque steeple, or at 
 least that which Bernard du Tîec erected in the first 
 half of the XIP" century; the two transepts, the two
 
 MONT SAINT-Mir.HEI. 71 
 
 semi-circular chapels built in the fronts of the transepts, 
 and lastly the toofhinri<> of the chancel ruined in 1421. 
 
 THE XAYE 
 
 The nave of the church consisted, as we have 
 already said, of seven arcades, the first three of which 
 were destroyed in 1776. After its alteration, the nave 
 was closed by a façade built in the fashion of that 
 time, in the style called Ihe jésuih' style ^ the peculiar 
 architecture of which makes us regret the suppression 
 of the nave and of the old portal. In front of the old 
 portal was a court built on the romanesque substruc- 
 tures. 
 
 The work of restoration, commenced in 1873 under 
 the direction of the commission of historical buildings, 
 necessitated, in 1875, excavations under the flag-stones 
 of the large platform of the west, which revealed the 
 foundations of the first three arcades. The plan — 
 fig. 31 — shows these discoveries; it indicates also : 
 the constructions made in front of the romanesque por- 
 tal by Robert de Torigni, this abbot's grave and his suc- 
 cessor Don Martin's. 
 
 These traces have been covered over — after the 
 useful works of preservation — by the flag -stones mak- 
 ing the ground of the large plateau.
 
 72 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 Fig. 31. — Plau of the cliurcli. — Artual nave. — Discoveries uiade in 1875^
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 73 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE 
 
 A Chancel (rebuilt in the XV"" century). 
 
 Vi Transepts. \ 
 
 I Romanesque constructions 
 
 \ XI'" century. 
 
 D Foundations of the tlirec dcstroyert arcades. ' 
 
 E Foundations of the towers and of the porch, built by Hobcrt dc Torigni 
 (Xr*" century). 
 
 F Grave of Robert de Torigni. j 
 
 ^' Details of the grave of Robert de Torigni. | XII''' century. 
 
 G Grave of Don Martin de Fiunicdeio. I 
 
 H Empty graves (XI'*" century . 
 
 I Traces of the flag-slones of the old court in front of the cliurcli. 
 
 J Ruins of the room called de Souvré's Room (old Dormitory). 
 
 J' Traces of the flag-stones of de Souvré's Room. 
 
 K Platform, called Saut-Gaultier. 
 
 L Cloister (XIII''' century). 
 
 M Ruins of the staircases leading down to the charnel-house of the Monks 
 
 (XI"'' century). 
 
 N Front rebuilt in 1780. 
 
 Old abbatial buildings (end of the XI"" century). 
 
 The front nave of the church is formed of three parts, 
 7. e. a large nave and two collaterals, rather narrow. 
 Like most of the churches built at the beginning of the 
 XP century, especially in Normandy, the central nave 
 was covered by visible timber-work. The actual vault 
 which seems to be in stone, is really in wood and old 
 dry plaster; it was made after the fire of 1834. The 
 aisles are alone vaulted by projecting, lateral and trans- 
 verse arches, the intervening spaces of which are full of
 
 74 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 plain groined vaults. The square piers are cantoned 
 with engaged columns |at the third of their diameter, as 
 shown in the plan, fig. 32. 
 
 Fig. 3-2. — Plan of an arcade of the ronvinesque nave. 
 
 The columns at the side of the large nave, rise to the 
 higher cornice : ended by the capitals, they supported 
 the outside timber trusses. The other three columns 
 crowned by capitals, support the transverse arches of 
 the lateral wall and those of the aisles which longitudi-
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 75 
 
 nally join the piers togetlier and transversally these to 
 tlie exterior walls. The figures 33 and 34 give the trans- 
 versal and longitudinal section of an arcade of the nave, 
 following the hues AB and CD of the plan fig. 32. The 
 dotted lines show the form of the modern j^seiido-vault . 
 
 The excavations made in 1875 at the actual entrance 
 of the nave, have disclosed in the north aisle — M of 
 the plan fig. 31 — the passages and the ruins of the 
 staircase leading from the nave to the charnel-house or 
 cemetery of the monks. A passage and a staircase both 
 stand on the south , running parallel with Saint-Ste- 
 phen's chapel — in J and in Z of the plan fig. 21. 
 These communications were intercepted by the cons- 
 truction of the front in 1780. 
 
 At the intersection of the nave and the transepts stand 
 the triumphal pillars erected in 1058, which supported 
 the steeple, rebuilt several times but entirely destroyed 
 at the end of the XYl"' century. In its place the mas- 
 sive square pavilion was unhappily built in 1620 which 
 still exists and which is proportionally too large for the 
 four pillars; of these, two remain almost perpendicular 
 as well as the transverse arches which join them; but 
 the two pillars joining the chancel suffered much da- 
 mage from the fire of 1421 . They are injured and split, 
 and it was impossible to support them but by building 
 the chancel in the XY"' century, the arches of the first 
 arcade of which have been put to support them. The
 
 76 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 .•f^'-'.'-:--^:-S' 
 
 Fig. 33. — Nave. Transversal section on AB. (Present condition.)
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 77 
 
 )f*>M=4 [ , I \ ( \ \ \ \ f ^ 
 
 Fig. 34. — Lonijitudiual section on CD. (Present condition).
 
 78 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 arches of the south transept and of the west nave, cal- 
 cined by the fire of 1834, have been newly plastered but 
 not restored ; they are terribly cracked especially those 
 of the south, and they were obHged to place supports 
 in January 1883, in order to avoid the threatening down- 
 full. 
 
 CHANCEL 
 
 The romanesque chancel has entirely disappeared, 
 and there does not exist any trace of its original form. 
 It was probably, as we have seen in the historical no- 
 tice, nearly like that of the church of Gerisy-la-Forèt, 
 the apse of which still exists. 
 
 The present chancel was built from 1450 to 1521 on 
 the enlarged site of the romanesque chancel, which fell 
 down in 1421. Although it was constructed with very 
 strong granite, like the other buildings of the Mount, it 
 is very carefully formed and is a very good specimen of 
 the edifices built during the last times of the pointed 
 architecture. It seems to be evident that they wished 
 in the XV century, to rebuild entirely the church in the 
 same style as the new chancel ; this plan was commen- 
 ced to be put in execution, and the intentions of the 
 builders of 1450 are easy to be seen. This project is 
 visible in the whole of the constructions and especially 
 in the angles formed by the chancel and the transepts. 
 In these places, the flying buttresses really sustaining
 
 MOiNT SAINT. MICHEL 
 
 79 
 
 the thrust of the vaults of the chancel cross each other 
 with those of the projected transepts; these last flying 
 buttresses, without reason and without object just now 
 -^ A of the plan fig. 35 — have been only partially built 
 
 é.). ^vl.'uyf^ 
 
 Fig. 35. — Chancel. Ground plan of the Ti'iforiuni.
 
 80 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 in anticipation of the further rebuilding of the transept 
 according to the new plan. 
 
 "We can judge of these arrangements by going round 
 the chancel on the terraces of the apses of the chapels 
 which we reach by the staircase built in the solid south 
 buttress and the entrance of which is in the third south 
 chapel. 
 
 The arrangement of this triforium is very ingenious; 
 the exterior gallery goes round the supports on which 
 it is constructed like corbels, in order to give them all 
 the necessary strength, p'an, fig. 35, by forming on the 
 base of the large windows and of the buttresses an archi- 
 tectural combination of a very nice effect. 
 
 The chancel is composed of a central nave, ended on 
 the east by an apse with chamfers surrounded by an 
 aisle around which extend and radiate lateral chapels 
 with apses — see plan, fig. 22. — The chapels of the 
 north side are narrower than those of the south and have 
 a different form. This difference rendered necessary 
 by the architecture, can be explained by the proximity 
 of the buildings of the Merveille^ which would have 
 been spoilt by the north collateral, if this part of the 
 church had been absolutely like the south one. 
 
 The construction of the chancel is very remarkable; 
 the conception is grand and the execution a real mas- 
 terpiece of that kind of architecture. The exactness 
 and the regularity of the details show that perfect
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL gt 
 
 science and knowledge directed the geometrical opera- 
 tions which were necessary when its foundations were 
 raised to the level of the soil. The perfection of the cut 
 of the granite, the clearness of the most complex moul- 
 dings and the perfect sculptures show what art and what 
 care were employed in the construction of these works. 
 After seeing the nave and the chancel, the visitor 
 will be able to make an interesting ascent. By taking 
 the staircase which we have already mentioned, in the 
 third radiating chapel, he will reach the galleries of the 
 triforium and, by ascending again ^the flight of steps 
 built on the raking part of a flying buttress and called 
 the jagged staircase^ ending at the upper balustrade of 
 the timber-roof, he will have before his eyes an im- 
 mense panorama. He must afterwards go down by 
 the same way to the foot of the staircase whence he 
 ascended to the third chapel and which has its starting 
 point in the lower church. 
 
 LOWER CHURCH CALLED CRYPT OF THE LARGE PILLARS 
 
 The difi'erence between the level of the higher church 
 and the exterior soil has necessitated the construction of 
 considerable basements; they formed the Lower churchy 
 called crypt of the large pillars^ which reproduces with 
 great simplicity the arrangements of the chancel, except 
 the lateral chapels of the first transverse compartment,
 
 83 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 
 Fi". 36, — Chancel. — Section on the longitudinal axe.
 
 MONT SATNT-MICHEL 83 
 
 which the rock prevented being made and those of 
 the second transverse compartment in the place of 
 which have been put cisterns made at the time of the 
 constructions in the depth of the substructures. The 
 plan, fig. 16, shows these dispositions in Y; the south 
 cistern is composed of two arcades, but the north has 
 only one. The pillars, round, thick and short, without 
 capitals receive by penetrations wàth corbels the cous- 
 sinets of the vault and serve as the solid base for the 
 piers of the chancel of the higher church. 
 
 A fortified bridge, formerly having battlements and 
 w^hich has still its machicolations, crosses the church 
 yard and makes the lower church communicate with 
 the abbatial dwelling on the south and the Merveille on 
 the north. 
 
 After visiting the lower church, the visitor ouglit 
 to go out on the north by the lateral door opening 
 on a narrow yard at the end of which is, towards 
 the east, a terrace w^hence he will admire the apse of 
 the church and the south front of the Merveille; after- 
 wards he must ascend the staircase winding round that 
 terrace — R of the plan of the second zone, fig. 21 — 
 and which ends, on the level of the Guards'hall, in the 
 court of the Merveille, I of the plan fig. 20, 1" zone.
 
 84 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 MERVEILLE 
 
 ]\Tota. — In order to keep an exact remembrance of the 
 Merveille, it is necessary to visit in the following order the 
 two distinct buildings of which it is composed : from the 
 court of the Merveille — I fig. 20 — the visitor enters by 
 the Porch and the Gate which open at the foot of the tower 
 of the Gorbins — K fig. 21 — he will see the Almonry and 
 the Gellar; he should ascend the staircase built in the 
 thickness of the walls, in the south-west angle of the 
 Gellar, and which ends on the first floor; he must observe 
 the Knights' hall, and the Refectory ; he must traverse the 
 lateral gallery of the Knights' hall, which leads by turnings 
 and staircases ending at the Gloister and the Dormitory 
 which form the second floor. 
 
 The gigantic constructions, which rise on the north 
 of the church, were called from their origin the Mer- 
 veille. 
 
 This imnaense building, the most beautiful specimen 
 which we have of the religious and military architec- 
 ture of the middle ages, is composed of three floors : the 
 lower one including the Almonry and the Gellar, the 
 intermediate comprising the Refectory and the Knights' 
 hall; the higher one containing the Refectory and the 
 Gloister. 
 
 We must remark that it is formed of tw^o edifices in
 
 Page 84.
 
 r^ 
 
 r.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 85 
 
 juxtaposition and joined together, the one looking to- 
 wards the east and the other to wards the west. The 
 former contains the Almonry, the Refectory and the 
 Dormitory; the latter, i. e. the edifice of the west com- 
 prises the Cellar, the Knight's hall and the Cloister. 
 
 The Merveille was commenced in the XIII"' century, 
 about 1203 and finished in 1228. 
 
 These splendid edifices, built entirely of granite, 
 were erected at the same period, on a plan skilfully and 
 powerfully imagined. We mustadmire this grand mas- 
 terpiece when we think of the enormous efforts which 
 were necessary to put it into execution so quickly i. e. 
 in twenty-five years, on the side of a steep rock, sepa- 
 rated from the continent by a moveable and dange- 
 rous shingle. In fact, this situation increased the diffi- 
 culties of the transportation of the materials which 
 were found in the quarries of the coast and from 
 whence the monks brought the granit necessary to 
 their works. A very small part of these materials was 
 taken from the base of the rock itself; but if the cros- 
 sing of the shingle was avoided, there were, however, 
 great obstacles in using them after raising them to the 
 fool; of the Merveille, the base of which is more than 
 50 metres above the mean level of the sea. 
 
 Although some diS'erences are to be noticed in the 
 form of the exterior buttresses, resulting from the inte- 
 rior arrangements of the halls, yet it is not less certain
 
 86 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 Level of Hie 1*1 slep of the I^ntnnre, 
 girti.:^^^ ■ ■ 
 
 Fig. 38. — Merveille. — East edifices. — Transversal scclioD 
 from the south to the north.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 87 
 
 Fig. 39. Merveille. — West edifices. — Transversal section from the north 
 to the south, (Condition in 1872.)
 
 88 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 that the two edifices composing the Merveille were 
 planned and built at the same time. To be convinced 
 of it, it is sufficient to study on the plans the sections 
 and the façades, their general bearings and first of all 
 he singular arrangement of the staircase built in the 
 thickness of ^the buttress, at the point where these two 
 buildings are joined together and crowned by a little 
 octogonal tower; this staircase begins in the Almonry, 
 ends in the Dormitory and the battlement above. 
 
 After these remarks and the position of the edifices 
 having been explained, we continue their description, 
 not in the order in which they were built, but in that 
 which we have already stated. (See the note in Mer- 
 veille intended to facihtate the visit of the halls of the 
 Building.) 
 
 ALMONRY 
 
 The Almonry or alms' room, is composed of two na- 
 ves. The roman plain groined vaults of a pointed form 
 rest on a cluster of strong and thick columns the bases 
 and the capitals of which are square. It is lighted by 
 two small windows with deep bendings, pierced be- 
 tween the buttresses, two on the east and six on the 
 north ; they open out in the interior of the room and 
 there are stone benches in the splayings. 
 
 The entrance door opens to the south on the court of
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 89 
 
 the Merveille. Under the porch, in front of it, is the 
 starting point of a staircase contained in the tower, 
 called Corbins' tower, K' of the plan flg. 21. This 
 staircase, of great simplicity, but the construction of 
 which is remarkable leads up to the Dormitory, to the 
 higher south circular road and to the base of the tim- 
 ber-roof, after leading, half-way, to the battlement of 
 the Ghatelet and to the courtain which joins it to the 
 Merveille. 
 
 During the researches made in 1872, by order of the 
 Minister of public instruction and fine arts, we found 
 near the south entrance door the remnants of a furnace 
 and among the remains of burnt clay some pieces of 
 melted white metal covered by green oxyde, indica- 
 ting a mixture in which copper is present in large quan- 
 tities. These are perhaps the remains of the bells mel- 
 ted in the Abbey or of the metal prepared to manufac- 
 ture obsidional coins which the abbots of the mount 
 were authorized to issue during the reign of Charles VII, 
 at the period of the long wars with the EngHsh. 
 
 At the end of the Almonry, towards the west, there 
 is a door communicating with the Cellar ; this aparture 
 with a double rabbet presents a peculiar arrangement 
 being shut in by two leaves — one before the other — 
 which, towards the Almonry were kept strongly closed 
 each of them by a crossbeam fixed on one side in a 
 mortice made on one of the doorposts and on the
 
 90 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 other side, in the wall, where, when the leaves were 
 opened it was put, throughout the whole width of the 
 door, in a square opening made for that purpose. 
 
 On the right of the douhle door is the entrance to the 
 staircase constructed at the junction of the two buil- 
 dings east and west ; it leads to the Dormitory and above 
 to the north battlement. 
 
 On the left, another door opens on a circular vertical 
 conduit which makes the Almonry communicate with 
 the Dormitory and wdiich is used to bring up the water 
 necessary to the monks for the service of the Dormi- 
 tories, of the Vestry on the south and of the Lavatory 
 situated in the south gallery of the Cloister. 
 
 CELLAR 
 
 The Cellar is" formed by three naves with the roman 
 plain groined vaults pointed and very acute in the two 
 lateral naves rest on square pillars supporting the co- 
 lumns of the knights' hall above. It is lighted by five 
 narrow pointed windows situated between the buttres- 
 ses. Towards the west, a large door opens on the ter- 
 races and gardens below. It probably established com- 
 munication between the Cellar and the Hall, built and 
 destroyed, or simply began by Richard Tristan in the 
 second half of the XIH"" century.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 91 
 
 In the second transverse compartment, towards the 
 west and under one of the windows, was placed a low 
 door which opened on a draw-bridge made between 
 the two buttresses — see section fig. 39 — and of which 
 the arch which supported it when it was clown can be 
 still seen. This draw-bridge, making a projection on 
 the front of the wall in order to kup its sloping base, 
 was used to bring up, by a wheel placed in the Cellar, 
 the water taken from the fountain Saint-Aubert, situa- 
 ted at the foot of the rock, and which was stored in the 
 Cellar for the wants of the Abbey. 
 
 The Cellar was called Montgommerie or Montgom- 
 mery since the unsuccessful attempt made by this par- 
 tisan in 1591 to seize by surprise Mont Saint-Michel. 
 We find in one of Dom Jean Huynes's manuscripts cu- 
 rious details of the attempts of the Huguenots during 
 the wars of the League to seize upon the Abbey; from 
 the incidents of this war we reproduce on of the most 
 interesting episodes and which refers to the Cellar : 
 
 cc Le gouverneur de Vieques estant mort, le sieur de 
 Boissuzé fut instalé en sa place et, l'an 1591, attrapa les 
 ennemys dans le piège qu'ils avoyent dressé pour le 
 perdre selon que s'ensuit. Les Huguenots, tenant une 
 grande partie de cette province de Normandie sous leur 
 puissance et particulièrement les villes et chasteaux 
 des environs de ce Mont, dressoient tous les jours des 
 embusches pour envahir ce sainct lieu Il arriva un
 
 92 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 jour entre autres qu'ils prirent un des soldats et luy 
 ayant desjà mis la corde au col, luy dirent que s'il vou- 
 loit sauver sa vie qu'il promît de leur livrer cet abbaye 
 et que de plus ils lui donneraient une bonne somme de 
 deniers. Cet homme, bien content de ne finir si tost ses 
 jours et alléché de l'argent qu'ils luy promettoient, dit 
 qu'il le feroit et convint avec eux des moyens de mettre 
 cette promesse à exécution, qui furent que le soldat re- 
 viendroit en ce Mont, espieroit, sans faire semblant de 
 rien, la commodité de les introduire secrettement en 
 cette Abbaye et leur assigneroit le jour qu'il jugeroit 
 plus commode pour cet efTect. Le soldat leur ayant pro- 
 mis de n'y manquer, ils luy donnèrent cent escus et, 
 bien résolu de jouer son coup, revint où il fut receu du 
 Capitaine de Mont et des soldats sans aucun soupçon, 
 puis se mit en devoir d'exécuter sa promesse. Pour donc 
 la mettre à chef il advertit quelques jours après ces 
 Huguenots de venir le vingt neufîesme de septembre, à 
 huict heures du soir, jour de Dimanche et de la dédi- 
 cace des églises Sainct-Michel, qu'ils montassent le long 
 des degrez de la fontayne Sainct-Aubert; qu'estant là 
 au pied de l'édifice il se trouveroit en la plus basse sale 
 de dessous le cloistre, où, se mettant dans la roue(l), 
 il en esleveroit quelques-uns des leurs qui par après luy 
 ayderoient en grand silence ;i monter les autres. Ainsy 
 
 (1) Wheel fixed in the Cellar and used to brin;? up water near the 
 draw-bridge which we have described before.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 93 
 
 par cet artifice, ce Mont estoit vendu ; mais ce soldat, 
 considérant le mal dont il alloit être cause, fut marry 
 de sa lascheté et advertit le Capitaine de tout ce qui se 
 passoit. Iceluy lui pardonna et se résolut avec tous ses 
 soldats et autres aydes de passer tous ces ennemys par 
 le fil de l'espée. Quant à eux, ne sçachant le change- 
 ment de volonté de cet homme et se réjouissant de ce 
 que le temps sembloit favoriser leur dessein, tant l'air 
 estant ce jour remply d'espaisses vapeurs ; comme nous 
 voyons arriver souvent, qui empeschoit qu'on les put 
 veoir venants de Gourteil jusques sur ce rocher, ne 
 manquèrent de se trouver au lieu assigné à l'heure 
 prescrite. Alors le soldat faisant semblant qu'il estoit 
 encore pour eux, se mit dans la roue et commença de 
 les enlever l'un après l'autre, puis deux soldats de cette 
 place les recevoient à bras ouverts, les conduisoient 
 jusques en la salle qui est dessous le réfectoire, où ils 
 leur faisoient boire plain un verre de vin pour leur 
 donner bon courage, mais les menoient par après dans 
 le corps de garde et ils les transperçoient à jour, se 
 comportans ainsy consécutivement envers tous. Sour- 
 deval, Mongomery et Ghaseguey, conducteurs de cette 
 canaille, s'esmerveilloient de ce qu'ils n'entendoient 
 aucun tumulte, y en ayant desjà tant de montez, 
 demandoient impatiemment qu'on leur jettast un Reli 
 gieux par les fenestres afin de connoistre par ce 
 signe si tout allait bien pour eux, ce qui poussa les
 
 94 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 soldais de céans, desjà tout acharnez, de tuer -un pri- 
 sonnier de guerre qu'ils avoient depuis quelque jours 
 lequel ils revestirent d'un habit de Religieux, puis lui 
 firent une couronne et le jettèrent à ces ennemys. Mais, 
 entrant en soubçon si c'estait un Religieux, Montgo- 
 mery, voulant sçavoir la vérité, donna le mot du guet a 
 un de ses plus fldelles soldats et le fit monter devant 
 luy; estant monté en haut et ne voyant personne des 
 siens il ne manqua de s'escrier: trahison! trahison! et 
 de ce cry les ennemys prenant l'espouvante descen- 
 dirent au plus fort du rocher, se sauvèrent le mieux 
 qu'ils purent, laissant 98 soldats de leur compagnie, 
 lesquels on enterra dans les grèves... » 
 
 On the right of the west gate, the staircase built in 
 the thickness of the buttresses leads to ihe Knights' hall 
 above. 
 
 knights' hall 
 
 The hall called Knights' hall — L of the plan fig. 21 
 — \vas begun in 1215 by Robert des Isles who died in 
 1218. Thomas des Chambres who succeeded him, fini- 
 shedit about 1220. It was called Knights' hall only after 
 the institution of the Order of Saint-Michel, established 
 by Louis XI in 1469 ; it was used before as the Hall of the 
 general assemblies or as that of the Chapter of the 
 Abbey.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 95 
 
 Besides, the general arrangements of the Knights' hall 
 show it was destined for numerous meetings; what 
 proves it, independently of its vast proportions, are 
 the three latrines constructed especially and only for 
 that hall ; two stand on the north and outside, between 
 the buttresses joined by arches. Each of them is pre- 
 ceded by a small recess communicating with the hall, 
 lighted by two rows of trefoiled series of arches. — See 
 fig. 37, north front of the Merveille. — A third latrine 
 which is really the one for the old abbatial buildings 
 of the XI" century and which was used by the builders 
 of the XIII"' century, is in the south west angle. The 
 visitor arrives there by a small chamfer door, and a 
 passage built in the thickness of the west wall. 
 
 The Knights' hall is formed of four naves of une- 
 qual width ; the first two rows of columns, towards the 
 north, rest on the piers of the Cellar; the third row has 
 ils foundations on the rock. The vaidts composed of 
 transverse and pointed arches, adorned at their junc- 
 tion with a sculptered keystone, are supported by round 
 columns with octogonal bases very finely cut; the 
 capitals, richly and strongly sculptured are surmoun- 
 ted, as those of the Refectory by circular abacuses with 
 high side faces deeply indented which have all the 
 peculiar characters of the norman buildings of the 
 Xlir" century. 
 
 Two large chimneys stand on the north front wall ;
 
 96 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 their large pyramidal mantels rise to the vault to 
 which their summits are very cleverly joined. The 
 flues of these chimneys go outside with a series of cor- 
 bels ingeniously combined with the buttresses , the 
 uppermost part of which they overtop, and their shafts 
 crown the lateral wall of the Cloister. 
 
 td Corroyer, del 
 
 Fig. 40. — Kuiglits' hall (XIII"' century).
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 97 
 
 The hall is lighted on the north by windows of diffe- 
 rent forms, and on the west hy a large opening, now 
 glazed; wiiich used to communicate with the construc- 
 tions (now in ruins), raised or only begun by Richard 
 Tustin about 1260. On the south aisle, joining the ro- 
 manesque substructures of the north transept is a 
 lateral passage, standing at two metres above the level 
 of the Hall, which makes a communication between the 
 Refectory and the other parts of the Abbey, especially 
 the Church, the Cloister, the Ambulatory and the west 
 Substructures. 
 
 In the interior north-west angle, close to the stair- 
 case leading down to the Cellar, is the entrance to the 
 Charter house, built on the exterior north-west angle 
 of the Merveille. — L' of plan fig. 22. — The Char- 
 ter house is composed of two small rooms placed one 
 above the other, the first of which is alone vaulted ; a 
 winding staircase connects them inside ; the end of the 
 second floor is parallel with the west gallery of the 
 Cloister, which is above the Knights' hall. 
 
 In the south east angle of the Hall, a door opens into 
 the large porch which is in front of the Refectory. This 
 porch, in the middle of which the Benedictine monks 
 of the congregation of Saint-Maur placed, in 1650, a 
 staircase which is shortly to be pulled down, opens, or 
 rather, after the demolition of the staircase of the XYII"' 
 century will open its arches to the north on a small 
 
 9
 
 98 MONT SAIMT-MICHEL 
 
 court, in front of the north door of the lower Church. 
 After descending some steps on the north we reach the 
 Refectory. 
 
 REFECTORY 
 
 The Refectory commenced by Jourdain and finished 
 by his successor Raoul des Isles, about 1215, is un- 
 questionably the most beautiful hall of the Merveille — 
 K in the plan fig. 21. — It is composed of a double 
 nave the vaults of which formed by transverse and poin- 
 ted arches, adorned at their junction by a sculptured 
 rosette, and supported by a cluster of columns like those 
 of the Almonry. The proportions of this hall, of which 
 fig. 41 gives on idea are very well conceived and , 
 according to the simplicity of the details of the architec- 
 ture, the general efi'ect is very grand. 
 
 The Refectory is lighted by nine large windows, con- 
 tained in arcades formed by the lateral piers of the na- 
 ves, the arches and the side-posts of the vaults; they 
 rise to the top of the building and are separated by a 
 mullion supporting an intermediate lintel, and there is 
 a bench in their recesses. 
 
 In the north lateral part, beneath one of the win- 
 dows, the lower glacis of which is higher than the 
 other above the soil, latrines are very ingeniously esta- 
 blished as well as the two secret^ entrances, obliquely
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 99 
 
 made in the thickness of the walls ; they were covered 
 by granite flag-stones, the toothings of which are per- 
 
 Éd, Corroyer^ del. 
 
 Fig. 41. — Refectory (XIII"' Icentury). 
 
 fectly distinct on the lateral fronts of the buttresses 
 between which the latrines w^ere established. The 
 peculiar arrangement of the window above has perhaps
 
 100 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 made the local archeologists believe that the pulpk 
 of the Reader stood in that place, this cannot be 
 believed after examining the details of the construc- 
 tions. 
 
 At the end of the Refectory, towards the west, on 
 the wall which separates it from the Knights' hall, 
 is a gigantic chimney with two hearths, the shafts of 
 which crown the west gable of the Dormitory. An- 
 other chimney the traces of which are still seen, 
 was made on the south side probably in the place 
 where the Abbot and the guests of note dwelt. A stone 
 pulpit does not exist as in many refectories of that pe- 
 riod; it was probably a wooden one and it has been 
 destroyed as well as the other ancient furniture of the 
 Abbey. 
 
 On leaving the Refectory passing on the right under 
 the Porch and taking the door on the left of the en- 
 trance to the Knights' hall, the visitor enters the Gal- 
 lery which runs by the side of that hall and finishes 
 with flights of steps to the old Cloister or ambulatory, 
 — F of the plan fig. 2J. — After ascending ^the 
 staircase on the east end of this ambulatory, the visitor 
 reaches the passage which leads : on the right to the 
 north aisle of the romanesque church and on the left to 
 the south Gallery of the Cloister.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 101 
 
 CLOISTER 
 
 The Cloister commenced by Thomas des Chambres 
 wasfmished by Raoul de Yilledieu, in 1228. The ge- 
 neral form is an irregular quadrilateral figure composed 
 of four galleries which surround the discovered yard or 
 area of the Cloister — L in the plan fig. 22. 
 
 OSrmitory. 
 
 Fig. 42. — Cloister (XIII''' century). — Plan of the norlh-east angle. 
 
 The south gallery communicates with the Church 
 and the old abbatial buildings of the XP century, on 
 the south-west restored and modified in the XH"" cen- 
 tury, by Roger II.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 103 
 
 The east one is joined to tlie Dormitory; the north 
 one looks on the main sea, by small and low windows, 
 let into the wall looking to the north, between the but- 
 tresses. Lastly the west one probably led to the Chap- 
 ter, projected by Richard Tustin. 
 
 Of this Chapter, Richard only made the door, which 
 opens on the west gallery and calls to mind, by its ge- 
 neral composition, the entrance to the capitulary room 
 of Saint-Georges de Boscherville. 
 
 At the angle of this last gallery, towards the north, 
 — north-west angle of the Merveille, — the small door 
 made in one of the lateral series of small arcades 
 leads to one of the Halls of the Charter house, joined 
 with the Knights' hall by an interior staircase. 
 
 (c The Cloister of the Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel on 
 sea, is one of the most curious and most complete of 
 those we possess The series of arches is for- 
 med by two rows of small and narrow intermingUng 
 
 columns the archivolts with tierce points rest on 
 
 the small columns from A to B, from B to C on the 
 exterior, from D to F and from E to F in the inte- 
 rior, etc. ; the triangles between the archivolts and the 
 diagonal arches are filled like ordinary vault triangles 
 fig. 4.3. 
 
 It is clear that this style of small columns forming a 
 herse, resists more easily to the pressure and to the mo- 
 vement of timber works than the style of twin columns,
 
 104 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 in as much as the diagonal arches AD, AE, EB, etc., 
 offer a double resistance to that pressure, prop the con- 
 struction and make the two rows of columns of mutual 
 support. Besides, we need not say that a weight 
 
 Fig. ii. — Cloislor. Sculptured angle tic. (West gallery.) 
 
 resting on three feet is firmer than a weight resting on 
 two or on four. Now, the gallery of the Cloister of the 
 Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel is nothing but a suite of 
 
 trivets The profiles of the ornamention call to 
 
 mind the real norman architecture of theXIlP century.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 105 
 
 The capitals according to the angio-norman fashion, 
 are simply designed without foliage nor crockets 
 round the corbeil. The capitals only of the series of 
 arches placed against the wall are adorned by bastard 
 crockets. The angle ties between the archi volts of the 
 interior of the galleries offer beautiful sculptured fleu- 
 rons in caissons, figures, a lamb overspread by a ca- 
 nopy; and, over the arches, a scrolled frieze or small 
 roses fmely worked. Between the bases of the diagonal 
 arches of small vaults, crockets are sculptured. This 
 Cloister was entirely painted, at least internally and in 
 
 the two rows of small columns The galleries were 
 
 primitively covered by timber-work with wainscots. 
 (Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonné de V architecture 
 française^ etc., tome III.) 
 
 In the south gallery, on the side parallel to the tran- 
 sept, the front of which was built by Raoul de Villedieu 
 at the same time as the Cloister, is the Lavatory. 
 
 " It was at this fountain named the Lavatory that 
 they (the monks) used to wash their feet at the time of 
 certain ceremonies : Omnes dehent lavare pedes in 
 claustro. " It w^as also used to wash the bodies of the 
 friars when they died; during this operation, all the 
 monks placed themselves round (or before) the Lava- 
 tory, in the same order as in the chancel, in order to 
 pray. ^^ Saint-BenoWs rides." (Albert Lenoir, Monastic 
 architecture.)
 
 106 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 As a rule, the Lavatory was near the Refectory this 
 last joining the Cloister; but at MonL Saint-Michel where 
 the steepness of the mountain did not allow the exten- 
 sion of the buildings by making them communicate 
 together at the same level, it was necessary to put the 
 halls one over the other and to change the ordinary 
 arrangements of the regular bénédictine monasteries. 
 
 Instead of being placed according to custom, either 
 in one of the angles of the yard, or in of the fronts of 
 the Cloister, the Lavatory was, on Mont Saint-Michel, 
 established as near as possible to the Refectory, in the 
 south gallery of the Cloister, on the exterior front of 
 the north transept of the church ; the base of this front 
 forms two arcades joined to the striking buttresses by 
 series of arches with rounded pendentives. 
 
 The Lavatory is composed of a double bench in each 
 transverse compartment, the most elevated of which 
 was used as a seat. Every double bench contains six 
 places, i. e. in the two benches, twelve seats, without 
 doubt arranged in remembrance of the twelve apostles. 
 
 Cutlers, apparent on the elevated part of the higher 
 benches, conducted water to the fountain which was 
 provided with a small basin, built in the bottom of 
 every lower bench . 
 
 The arrangements of the Lavatory permitted the 
 monks to make their obligatory ablutions and to accom- 
 plish mutually the washing of the feet, which, accor-
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 107 
 
 ding to the bénédictine rules, had to be done in the 
 Cloister, not only on holy Thursday, but also on 
 every Thursday. " When it was very cold, in winter, 
 and the water from the fountain placed in the Cloister 
 was frozen, they went to the Dormitory to wash their 
 feet and hands with hot water, which was brought 
 there for that purpose. " (Albert Lenoir, ditto.) 
 
 Fig. 45. — Cloister. Sculptured angle tie. (West gallery.) 
 
 In the interior of the galleries, the sculptured sketches 
 adorning the angle ties are all different; the friezes too,
 
 108 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 although included in a known profile, are very rich, 
 very varied, and all this sculpture, composed with the 
 greatest cleverness, in executed with the highest perfec- 
 tion. 
 
 Fig. 40. — Cloister. Sculplurcd aiitiic tie. (Kast r;all('rv.) 
 
 In front oi the doors, the Christ is figurated, accor- 
 ding to the monastic fashion; on the east, opposite the 
 principal door of the Dormitory, and on the west 
 opposite the entrance to the Chapter the door of which
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 109 
 
 has alone been built. On the south, rather on the 
 right of the door, the Christ is on a throne, formed 
 by a small and very thin column with its capital 
 adorned with flowers, and accompanied by two figures. 
 The higher part of the angle tie is adorned with three 
 gable's, very nicely sculptured, forming a canopy above 
 
 Fig. 47. — Cloister. Sculiitured angle tie. (South gallery.) 
 
 the Christ and the lateral figures; the state of muti- 
 lation of this last basso relievo prevents you from dis- 
 cerning clearly (except the figure of the Christ blessing] 
 
 10
 
 110 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 the subject of the composition, but that which renders 
 it particularly interesting are the names engraven on 
 each side of the heads, or, more accurately the places 
 which they occupied. They are without doubt the 
 names of the architects or sculptors of the Cloister : 
 Maître Roger, Don Gaiin and Maître Jehan. 
 
 li','. 48. — Cloister. SculplinTd angle tie. (South gallery.) 
 
 The exterior arcades, on the Area of the Cloister, in- 
 ternally sculptured are in Caen stone; it is the only place 
 in the Abbey were calcarious stone has been used. In
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 111 
 
 spite of its weakness and the mouldings of its arches 
 very much excavated, this stone rather soft, resisted the 
 saUnous wind, except however in one part of the east 
 and north faces, where the south-west winds, from the 
 open sea, have deeply altered it. 
 
 The Area of the Cloister forms, in a large part of its 
 extent, the covering of the Knights' Hall, — see the sec- 
 tion figure 39; — the declivities, transversely made, 
 send the rain-water outside by canals which cross the 
 north galleries of the Cloister and end in gargoyles, 
 placed on the exterior buttress of the north front. From 
 the XV"" century, the water was collected and sent into 
 the cistern of the north aisle of the chancel rebuilt after 
 its destruction in 1421 and commenced about 1450, by 
 the cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville. 
 
 The Cloister has been lately restored by the cares of 
 Ministry of public Instruction and Fine -Arts, on the re- 
 commendation of the commission of historical buildings. 
 The works made under our direction were commenced 
 in 1877 and entirely finished in 1881. 
 
 The thin columns of the exterior series of arches as 
 well as the capitals and the bases are of granitel turned 
 and polished, like the rare specimens which have been 
 fortunately preserved and which have been faithfully 
 reproduced in all their details. 
 
 The granitel is found in the neighbourhood oi Luzerne 
 d Outre-Mer (Manche) ; the quarries were worked from
 
 112 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 the XIP century, and the Abbots of the old and celebra- 
 ted Abbey of Luzerne often used them to make presents, 
 especially to the Benedictine monks of Mont-Saint- 
 Mich el, with whom they were in very cordial relations 
 in the XIIP century at the time of the construction 
 of the Cloister. 
 
 It was very interesting to find available for the resto- 
 ration the same materials which had been used for the 
 primitive construction; and after our numerous sear- 
 ches in order to find the old quarries the layers of 
 which had been indicated to us by historical records 
 about Mont-Saint-Micliel, this result has been attained 
 thanks to the good will of the proprietor, the count Henry 
 de Canisy who wished to follow the good example for- 
 merly given by the old landlords of the Abbey of Lu- 
 zerne. 
 
 The timber-roof of the galleries has been restored ac- 
 cording to the most certain data furnished by pieces of 
 the ancient timber work found in the roofs which have 
 been very often modified especially by the Directors of 
 the Prison ; these records have permitted giving to the 
 vaults which cover the galleries their primitive form 
 which is very beautifully and very beautifully desi- 
 gned so as not to overcharge the light and graceful 
 series of arches on the exterior. 
 
 In the east gallery, a fine and large door in connexion 
 with the interior arcades which run at the back of the
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL • 113 
 
 exterior walls of the Cloister leads into the Dormitory, 
 the apartments belonging to which communicated by a 
 small door with the south gallery. 
 
 DORMITORY 
 
 At the same time that he finished the Knights' Hall, 
 Thomas des Chambres ordered the building of the 
 Dormitory which he finished before his death, about 
 1225. 
 
 The Dormitory is a large Hall erected above the Re- 
 fectory of which it has the same general dimensions ; 
 but, instead of being, as the latter, vaulted with stones 
 and divided into two parts, it was in one, and covered 
 with timber-work. The evidence of that primitive 
 arrangement is seen in the west gable-end still stan- 
 ding entire; the stone wall arch which supported the 
 semicircular wainscot, still exists and attests the an- 
 cient form. 
 
 The Dormitory is lighted, on the north and on the 
 south, by a succession of small windows, long and 
 narrow, having the form of loop-holes; their apertures 
 widen towards the outside and their crownings, by 
 their pecuhar forms in bee nests, seem to be a remi- 
 niscence of oriental art, seen by the French crusaders 
 during their expeditions in Palestine. In the interior, 
 
 10.
 
 114 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 these windows having their apertures widened the 
 same as the outside are framed by small cohimns sup- 
 porting fine series of arches surmounted by a projec- 
 ting cornice, on which rested the wainscotted barrel- 
 vaulting. On the east, two large windows light the 
 eastern end of the Dormitory. 
 
 On the w^est, the principal door of the Dormitory 
 opens on the east gallery of the Cloister ; a lateral door 
 opens on the same side and leads to the Church by 
 the south gallery of the Cloister running parallel with 
 the north transept. Towards the south-west angle, a 
 door makes communication between the Dormitory, 
 the Vestry and the Warming place and with the Clois- 
 ter by a small door on the west. In the opposite an- 
 gle on the north west, ends thew inding staircase, built 
 in the thickness of the buttress at the junction of the 
 two buildings of the Merveille, which having its start- 
 ing point in the Almonry, ends above, on the north 
 battlement the toothings of which are still seen on one 
 of the sides of the small tower crowning the staircase. 
 
 In the south front, very nearly in the middle, is a 
 large niche including two series of arches, planned 
 and built from the beginning as is proved by all the 
 details of the construction. There were placed the 
 lamps formed by holes dug in a stone and so disposed as 
 to receive a wick or a wax ball, furnished with a wick, 
 the consumption of which enabled one to juge approxi-
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 115 
 
 mately what was the time, or, finally, any light which, 
 according to Saint-Benoit's rules, was to be burnt all 
 night in the Dormitory : ' ' Candela jugiter m eadem 
 cella ardeat usque mane " Albert Lenoir, Monastic ar- 
 chitecture. — According to this same rule, the monks 
 should lie down in their clothes — vestiti dormiant 
 [ditto) on separate beds and, as much as possible, 
 in the same room : Monachi singuli per singula lecta 
 dormiant^ si potest fieri^ omnes in una loco dormiant 
 [ditto). " Also the plans made by the first builders show 
 clearly that the Dormitory, was in the XIII"* century, 
 established according to the regular customs of the 
 Benedictine monks. At this time, " the Dormitories, 
 as a rule, had no ceiling (or were not vaulted) and the 
 beams overhead were visible [ditto). " 
 
 In the XY"" century, contrary to the old rule, the 
 Dormitory was divided into cells, according to the 
 orders which Pierre le Roy, before starting for his long 
 journey, gave the claustral Prior of the Abbey, Dom 
 Nicolas de Yandastin. 
 
 The timber-roof of the Dormitory was several times 
 fired. In 1300, the lightning struck the Church the 
 roof of which was burnt, as well as that of the 
 Dormitory. Guillaume du Château repaired the da- 
 mage during the time he had the control of the Abbey. 
 In 1374, the lightning again set fire to the Church 
 and Ihe Dormitory, several lodgings of the Monastery
 
 116 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 and almost all the houses of the Town; Geoffroy de 
 Servon began the restoration of the Dormitory which 
 was finished in 1391 by Pierre le Roy, who rebuilt the 
 pyramid of the octagonal Tower of the Refectory, 
 called : Corbins Tower. " Having restored the temple, 
 he took care of the Monastery : he ordered the Tower 
 of the Refectory, to be rebuilt which had fallen down 
 some time before. " (Don Jean Huynes.) 
 
 From this time (end of the XIV" century) till the 
 beginning of the XVI"" century the Dormitory as well 
 as the buildings of the Monastery were carefully at- 
 tended to, but during the time of the commendatory 
 Abbots, the building and restoring were discontinued. 
 Several decrees of the Norman parliament were neces- 
 sary to make the Abbots do the necessary repairs. 
 
 In the midst of difficulties of every kind with which 
 the Abbey was troubled, such a looseness of manners 
 in the morals of the Monks caused them to be replaced 
 in 1622 by the monks of Saint-Maur; the new inhabi- 
 tants of Mont Saint-Michel unhappily spoilt the Dormi- 
 tory. In 1629 this magnificent hall was divided into 
 two parts by the establishment of new cells, and under 
 the pretext of lighting, llicy enlarged the interior re- 
 cesses of the windows by undermining the thin co- 
 lumns which framed them and the series of arches 
 which crowned them. 
 
 The transformation of the Abbey into a prison, pro-
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 117 
 
 faning the Church and the sacred places, increased 
 the already mutilated ruins. Like the other halls of 
 the Monastery profanely inhabited, the Dormitory was 
 divided into two floors of rooms for the prisoners and 
 over was a loft ; on the north front, foul latrines 
 were built which were happily pulled down last year. 
 The actual roofing is modern; above the wall arch 
 about which we spoke before, on the interior front of 
 the west gable are seen the projecting hstels destined 
 to prevent the infiltration of rain water between the 
 wall and the covering; they determine surely the pri- 
 mitive form of the old gable-end and timber-roof. 
 
 The halls of the Merveille, except the Cellar and the 
 interior galleries of the Cloister, were paved in terra 
 cotta square panes, coloured and enamelled, some 
 remnants of which we have collected in the excava- 
 tions which were made in diverse parts of the Abbey. 
 
 The timber-roof of the Dormitory was covered with 
 varnished tiles; we have also found some pieces of 
 those tiles in the ruins of the flight of steps leading 
 to the fountain Saint-Aubert. 
 
 The restoration of the Dormitory commenced in 1882, 
 thanks to the new and important credits opened by the 
 Ministry of public Instruction and Fine-Arts, will be 
 finished in four or five years. 
 
 The Cloister and the Dormitory are on the top of the 
 Merveille; if the visitor has followed us, he will have
 
 H8 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 thoroughly seen this, or rather, those magnificent buil- 
 dings. 
 
 On descending the staircase of the Gorbins' tower, 
 which communicates with the Dormitory by a small 
 door in the south east angle, the visitor must stop half- 
 way to see the battlement of the Chatelet, which is just 
 as it was in the XV"" century ; besides we will refer to 
 this later, on leaving the Abbey; afterwards, in descen- 
 ding, he will come again under the porch at the entrance 
 of the Almonry; but before leaving the Merveille, it 
 seems to us necessary to say some words about the 
 works which protected it on the north, as well as about 
 the fountain Saint-Aubert, which had a considerable 
 importance from the XIII"' to the XV"" century. 
 
 FORTIFICATIONS OF THE MERVEILLE 
 FOUNTAIN SAINT-AUBERT 
 
 Independently of its formidable fronts, which can be 
 considered as veritable fortifications, the Merveille was 
 protected by an embattled wall joined to the ramparts. 
 This wall was flanked by a tower, also with battlements, 
 which was used as a parade ground for the circular 
 roads extending towards the west. In the middle , at 
 the level of the north-west angle of the Merveille, a
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 119 
 
 small Chatelet, now destroyed, protected the very steep 
 flight of steps, which was closed by embattled walls, 
 which led down to the fountain Saint- Aubert. 
 
 This fountain stands on the north at the lower part 
 of the rock. We have seen, in the historical notice, 
 the details which Don Jean Huynes gives about the mi- 
 raculous origin of this fountain, which was surrounded 
 by a high tower and from there to the lower halls un- 
 der the Cloister, you can see a large flight of steps, clos- 
 ed by walls, etc. 
 
 A great part of the staircase of the fountain still exists. 
 Under the bushes and the crumbling ground, we found 
 its steps, the bases of its lateral w^alls, and at its lowest 
 end the traces of a circular construction and ruins of the 
 fortified Tower, built about the middle of the XIIP cen- 
 tury, to contain the precious fountain. 
 
 Till the time when Guillaume d'Estouteville ordered 
 the two large cisterns to be built in lower collaterals of 
 the new Chancel, rebuilt from the XY'Mo the XYI"' cen- 
 tury and commenced by this abbot in 1450, the high 
 tower of which Dom Jean Huynes speaks included the 
 only fountain of Mont Saint-Michel. It is easy to under- 
 stand that it was indispensable to protect it, firstly 
 against the sea which invaded it during high water, and 
 afterwards against the attempts which the enemy made 
 to seize it. The Tower of the fountain fortified, joined 
 to the works of the Abbey by the embattled staircase,
 
 120 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 was one of the principal parts of the exterior defences 
 of the place. Beyond the necessity to preserve the 
 fountain, the Tower made an advanced post very im- 
 portant in a strategical prospect, because the situation 
 of the work permitted the garrison to be supplied from 
 the sea. It is assuredly in this place, accessible during 
 full tide ; that the Abbey received the supplies from 
 the Duke of Britanny when, at the end of the year 1423 
 and at the beginning of 1424, Mont Saint-Michel was 
 blocked by land and by sea. 
 
 Resuming our itinerary, hindered by a useful digres- 
 sion, we must cross the yard taken before entering the 
 Merveille. After visiting on the left one of the floors 
 of the Chatelet, which is actually the ofQce of the guar- 
 dians of the Fine- Arts — (faithful guardians, punctual 
 and unbiassed, whom the visitors, more and more nu- 
 merous, value according to their merits) — we shall 
 find ourselves again in the Guards' Hall and, after des- 
 cending thé steps which 'we took on arrival, in the 
 Barbican from whence we shall be able to admire the 
 Chatelet forming the Door of the Abbey, the entrance 
 of which it protects — see fig. 19.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 121 
 
 CHATELET 
 
 During the first part of the XV"* century, Pierre le 
 Roy built the Chatelet and the Curtain joining that 
 work to the Merveille by means of the Gorbins' tower : 
 « And from this tower to Belle-Chaise he ordered the 
 wall which is seen there to' be built. Near it was cons- 
 tructed the dungeon above the flight of steps at- the en- 
 trance of the Guard-house. >» (Don Jean Huynes.) 
 
 He also constructed the Barbican, comprising the sally 
 port of the Chatelet and the Door of the Abbey, as well 
 as the large flight of steps on the north side and the 
 staircase on the south. 
 
 The Chatelet (dungeon) was built in front of the north 
 external front of Belle-Chaise, on which it leans with- 
 out joining, leaving between this front and the south 
 one an empty space, a large machicolation protecting 
 the northen door, which has become the second inw^ard 
 door since the Chatelet has been constructed. It com- 
 prises a square building, which contains in the angles 
 of the north front, two little towers with corbels, res- 
 ting on buttresses and which look, like two immense 
 bombards, standing on their breeches. Between the 
 
 pedestals of those small towers is the door, where are 
 
 11
 
 122 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 the stairs — leading to the Guards' Hall — which were 
 protected by a portcullis worked from the interior to 
 the first floor of the Curtain joining the two small 
 towers. 
 
 The Chatelet includes as well as the raking-vault of the 
 staircase, a nook left between that vault and the floor of 
 the first room — now the guardians' ofQce, in the court of 
 the Merveille — and in which was the loop-hole pierced 
 above the Door ; three floors lighted on the east and on 
 the north and eachof them was provided with a chimney 
 the top of which rises above the roof. 
 
 The wall or Curtain joining the Merveille and the 
 Chatelet built at the same time as this last building, 
 gives internally on the court of the Merveille the too- 
 things of a planned building, the door and the postern 
 of which alone were finished, on the north front of 
 Belle-Chaise and looking on the court of the Merveille 
 of which they were to make the entrance. This cons- 
 truction was not finished as is proved by the slate of the 
 wall arches of the lower part, which was probably 
 vaulted. 
 
 The Chatelet and the Curtain are admirably built of 
 granite; their stones forming grey and pink lines alter- 
 nately to the height of the first floor (of the Chatelet 
 only) as well as the profiles of the mouldings, are cut 
 with the gieatest perfection. By these means they are 
 very well conserved, and, except the necessary rebuild
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 123 
 
 ding of the timber-roof, ruined in part, it is possible to 
 put them in their primitive state without very impor- 
 tant works. 
 
 The perspective view ta"ken from the north door of 
 the Barbican, figures the entrance to the Abbey in its 
 actual condition, except the battlement of the Barbican 
 which is supposed to be rebuilt — fig. 19. It shows : 
 the Ghatelet, the door of which opens between the but- 
 tresses supporting the small towers, where begins the 
 flight of steps which ascends to the Guards' Hall (Belle- 
 Chaise) and, on the right of the figure, the Curtain joi- 
 ning the Chatelet to the Merveille; on the left, the south 
 door of the Barbican. 
 
 BARBICAN OF THE CHATELET 
 
 LARGE FLIGHT OF STEPS ON THE NORTH AND STAIRCASE 
 ON THE SOUTH 
 
 The Barbican surrounding the Chatelet on the east 
 and on the north, forms a first line of defence the bat- 
 tlement of which is reached by a small staircase. An 
 embattled watch-tower stands in the south east angle 
 near the south door — M fig. 49 — it is provided with 
 a chimney with machicolations, and was used as a shel- 
 ter for the mihtary guardians of the two doors of the 
 Barbican.
 
 t24 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 .ii 
 
 A 
 
 <u 
 
 BO 
 
 V. 
 
 « 
 
 <u 
 
 03 
 
 C) 
 
 to 
 
 
 ca 
 
 t» 
 
 *A
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 125 
 
 EXPLANATORV NOTE 
 
 A Curtaia joining the Chatelet to the Merveille. 
 
 B Court of the Merveille. 
 
 G Guards' Hall. 
 
 First step of the entrance to the Abbey. 
 
 E Large flight of steps. — Stair head communicating with the postern I. 
 
 F Fligth of steps continuing the slopes of the streets of the town. 
 
 G First fortified door of the first flight of steps. 
 
 H Second fortified door ditto. 
 
 I Postern opening on the Claudine tower J and on the Ramparts by the 
 staircase on the left. 
 
 J Claudine tower. — Guard-house. 
 
 K Third fortified door of the large flight of steps. — North door of the 
 Barbican. 
 
 L South staircase. 
 
 M South door of the Barbican. — On the right of the staircase, guard- 
 house on the level of the Barbican. 
 
 N Postern communicating with the circular roads on tlie south. 
 
 Circular roads. 
 
 " In front of the door of the Abbey were somelimes 
 established advanced mihtary works, in order to render 
 more difficult the approach of the assailants, as would 
 have been done before a fortress : those were bar- 
 bicans which, in the case of an attack gave time 
 to prepare for the defence and to close the gates. 
 A remarkable specimen of those first military works 
 was to be seen at Saint-Jean-des-Yignes, at Soissons 
 (barbican of a rectangular form having a great ana- 
 logy with that of Mont Saint-Michel). These advanced 
 constructions — barbicans, — which were established 
 
 in the middle ages in front of a place, were equiva- 
 
 11.
 
 126 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 lent to the works named tête de pont^ demi-lune (or 
 ravelin) in the modem fortifications. » (Albert Lenoir, 
 monastic architecture .) 
 
 LARGE FLIGHT OF STEPS AND STAIRCASE 
 ON THE SOUTH 
 
 Two staircases lead to the Barbican : the north one 
 is the large flight of steps, very wide, the steps of which 
 are very low, and form the suite of the slopes of the street 
 of the town, ending at the exterior defences of the Castle. 
 The large flight of steps is established in a parallel 
 with the west rampart, but without any communica- 
 tion with it; formerly a fortified door stood on the lower 
 part of the stairs ; a second door stopped the passage half- 
 way, on a landing place wdiere a small postern on the 
 level of the landing place communicating with a guard 
 house built in the lower part of the Claudine Tower, 
 allowed the military to go on the flight of steps at the 
 first signal. Lastly was a third door opening into the 
 Barbican. 
 
 The south staircase is not so important; it estabhshed 
 the necessary communications between the Barbican 
 and the outside part by a postern built on the foot of 
 the staircase and the exterior circular roads leading to 
 the Barbican. 
 
 The figure 50 shows the condition of the large flight
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 127 
 
 of steps in 1872, by a longitudinal section made pa- 
 rallel with the line XY of the plan fig. 49 (in the direc- 
 tion of the two letters turned upside down). 
 
 Fig. 50. — Large flight of steps. — Longitudinal section on XY. 
 ( Condition in 1872.) 
 
 These traces give incontestable proofs of the primi- 
 tive dispositions which we have reestablished in the 
 following drawing (fig. 51). 
 
 The figure 51 shows the longitudinal section made 
 by following the line XY of the plaji fig. 49; the large 
 flight of steps is reestablished as well as the first door; 
 this one, the intermediary door and the Barbican door, 
 are provided with folding sides parallel with the flight 
 of steps. 
 
 This large flight of steps so powerfully fortified by 
 nature and by military art, was entirely independent of 
 the Ramparts with which it could however communi-
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 129 
 
 cate, for the needs of the defenders, but only by a nar- 
 row postern opening on the large flight of steps, the 
 passage of which was easily intercepted. The ramparts 
 on the west and on the north, rose above the large 
 flight of steps, and made it easy to be defended. A 
 great part of those works still exist and the study of 
 their traces is especially interesting, because all these 
 special dispositions form a scarce and perhaps the only 
 specimen of the military architecture ia the middle 
 ages. 
 
 The two doors of the large flight of steps and the 
 two north and south entrances to the Barbican were 
 each closed by only one leaf, of the same size as the 
 openings, and which was horizontally moved and work- 
 ed by a particular system which is explained by the 
 exceptional situation of Mont Saint-Michel the edifices 
 as well as the works of which are placed one over the 
 other and are joined together only by a series of flight 
 of steps and slopes of various kinds. 
 
 The leaves of the doors turned on their horizontal 
 axis resting on projecting doorposts, established inside 
 of the doors ; they were opened in a parallel manner 
 with the declivity of the flight of steps (A fig. 50 and 51) 
 and at the least alert, it w^as easy to let them dowm very 
 quickly, for they were pulled down by the weight itself 
 of the lower part provided with heavy iron-works; they 
 were kept shut by bolts, laterally fixed on the interior
 
 130 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 part of the leaves : the staples of the locks of which 
 are still seen sealed in the posts of the doors. 
 
 The shut leaves made great opposition to the attacks 
 from the exterior, hecause supported by the lateral re- 
 bates and the interior steps, directed against the pres- 
 sure, they could not be broken through or driven up 
 except after long attempts : by these means they defied 
 any surprise. 
 
 The skilful means used to protect the approches of the 
 Barbican of the Ghatelet, as well as the obstacles accu- 
 mulated on the stairs which lead to its doors, detained 
 the assailant and counteracted the attempts which he 
 made to seize, by an attack with open force, upon the 
 exterior works of the gate of the Fortress -Abbey. 
 Therefore, thanks to its protectors and principally to 
 its abbots, clever architects as well as vigilant cap- 
 tains , the mihtary work of whom completed the natu- 
 ral defences which rendered it inexpugnable, the Abbey 
 had the glorious and rare honour of resisting victo- 
 riously the violent assaults of the Enghshmen as well 
 as the perfidious artifices of the Huguenots, and has 
 never been the prey of the enemies of France and of 
 the catholic religion. 
 
 We give the figure 52, which shows the fronts of the 
 edifices built from the XIIP to the XV"" century, as well 
 as those of the Barbican, the plan of which is detailed in 
 figure 49.
 
 e Abbey. — Restoration. Page 13a
 
 m 
 
 n
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 131 
 
 RAMPARTS 
 
 On going out by the north gate of the Barbican of the 
 Ghatelet and taking on the left the Une of Ramparts, teh 
 visitor will reach the small parade, in front of the Clau- 
 dine Tower which commands and protects, by machi- 
 colations, the passage leading from the large flight of 
 steps and from the Ramparts to the north circular roads, 
 see plan fig. 49. From the elevated position, he will 
 be able to judge the dispositions of the large flight of 
 steps of which we have just spoken. 
 
 After descending a first slope on the west , — which 
 ends in a watch-tower forming the projecture of the walls, 
 and afterwards a second slope on the north, where stands 
 the North Tower, from which the visitor will enjoy a 
 series of magnificent sights, most of the whole of the 
 Edifices of the Merveille and of the Abbey, or the im- 
 mense panorama of the high sea, of Tombelaine and 
 of the coasts and shingles, or the greatest part of the 
 walls extending on the east and on the south of the 
 Town and of the Abbey. 
 
 The North Tower, forming the north east projecture 
 of the Ramparts, exists still in great part, uncrowned 
 and filled in by ground and refuse of every kind ; but 
 we hope that it will be soon cleared and purified as
 
 132 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 was, in these last years, the small bastil of the Boucle 
 Tower, 
 
 The North Tower offers, by its general arrange- 
 ments, its loopholes and the details of its structure, all 
 the particularities of the military architecture of the time 
 when it was built 1(1255 te 1260). At first it was not 
 covered by machicolations. This system was establi- 
 shed only in the first part of the XI V"* century, when 
 all the defences were on the top of the walls ; in the 
 place of the w^ooden parapets^ only put there during 
 the war and often fired by the assailants, were placed 
 stone parapets or machicolations with embattled para- 
 pets, equally of stone. 
 
 Guillaume du Château (1299-1314) increased the forti- 
 fications of the town and finished them when he gover 
 ned the Abbey. In 1300, the fire which caused so 
 much damage to the buildings of the Abbey, had 
 reached the town and burnt to the ground almost all of 
 its dwellings ; Guillaume restored the monastery and 
 rebuilt the houses of the town by means of help sent 
 by Philippe le Bel after this monarch came as a pilgrim 
 to Mont Saint-Michel. It is about jthis time that Guil- 
 laume du Chateau continued building the Ramparts 
 commenced by Richard Tustin, by enlarging the east 
 front of the fortress towards the South and joining its 
 walls to the rugged sides of the rock on which are erec- 
 ted the abbatial edifices.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL i33 
 
 Ramparts erected by Guillaume du Château a part of 
 the curtains, and some of the brackets forming the 
 machicolations still exist ; these traces are apparent on 
 the east in the actual ramparts, on the right between 
 the North Tower and the Bastillon of the Boucle Tower. 
 The five brackets whichare seen there — at least in 1872 
 and within the last few years, — are composed of three 
 corbels put one over the other, roughly cut, but placed 
 in order so as to firmly support the stone parapet, 
 according to the system of defence newly invented and 
 leaving between each bracket a large machicolation, 
 much larger than those which were made in the XY"^ 
 century. The wall of the curtain, above the brackets 
 rests on a sloping base, in order to increase the violence 
 of the missiles rebounding on this bank. 
 
 The door of the Enclosure built by Guillaume, in the 
 beginning of the XI V"" century, was probably on the 
 east and south-east, and very likely at the place where 
 the rock, by allowing landing and rather easy access, 
 necessitated defensive works, between which opened 
 the entrance to the town. 
 
 Nothing remains of the arrangements of that time. 
 There only exist some parts of walls on the east side, 
 in the interior of the present ramparts ; but they only 
 indicate the direction of the Ramparts without speci- 
 fying the exact place of the old Gate. We must 
 however consider in a certain manner the traditional 
 
 12
 
 134 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 records which put the Gate of the old Ramparts of 
 the Town on the east in front of Avranches. We read in a 
 part of the manuscripts left by Thomas le Roy, about 
 the works of Robert JoHvet : « La Porte de la ville fut 
 changée. Estant vis-à-vis de l'Église parocchiale, elle 
 fut mise où elle est à présent. » A manuscript of the 
 beginning of the XT"^ century gave us very important 
 records about this matter as well as of the old Ram- 
 j)arts. The breviary of Pierre 11, duke of Britany, con- 
 tains a great number of miniatures and that which 
 adorns the page of Saint-Michel's office represents 
 independently of the figure of the Archangel a very 
 curious illustration especially by the information which 
 it gives us about Mont Saint-Michel at the end of the 
 XlV'^century — flg. 1. 
 
 On leaving the platform of the North Tower, and des- 
 cending the very steep flights of steps crowning the 
 walls, we reach the angle formed by the walls of the 
 XIY"" century and those which Robert Jolivet erected 
 from 1415 to 1420. 
 
 At that time, the town was enlarged towards the 
 south, and independently of the necessity of protecting 
 it against the Englishmen intrenched in Tombelaine, it 
 was necessary to oppose the attack with a much stron- 
 ger defence than the ramparts of the XIV"' century. 
 This new arrangement, if more defenders were neces- 
 sary in the fortress, obliged the enemy to extend his
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 135 
 
 lines. Robert Jolivet put his new walls on the east 
 against those of Guillaume du Château. Afterwards 
 descending the steepness of the rock, protected by the 
 North Tower, to the shingle, he flanked his walls, at 
 first by a Tower changed into a Boulevard or Bastillon 
 in the XYI"" century, forming a considerable projecture 
 destined to reach the sides of the adjacent curtains and 
 to protect the front of the work as well as the place ; 
 
 ff^. CfrnyffT^ 
 
 Fig. 53. — Boulevard (or Bastillon) on the East. — North side, 
 
 afterwards, he continued the walls on the south streng- 
 thening them byVfive other towers, one of which he 
 placed at the obtuse angle formed by the curtains.
 
 136 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 The last Tower, called King's Tower, forms the south- 
 west projecture of the Place and protects at the same 
 time the Gate of the Town, King's Gate. From this 
 point the ramparts turning at a right angle, are joined 
 by staircases and embattled circular roads, overlooked 
 
 '•îàa^- 
 
 Fig. 54. — Ramparts of the XV"" century. (Section of the walls.) 
 North side of the Boucle Tower.
 
 MONT SALNT-MICHEL 
 
 137 
 
 by a guard-house, to the steep slopes of the inaccessible 
 rock, the fortified tops of which, communicate with the 
 defences of the Abbey on the south. 
 The walls and their sloping bases [are protected by 
 
 Fig. 53. — Ramparts of the XV"» century. (Boucle Tower.) 
 Tront of tlic East posterns. 
 
 1-2.
 
 138 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 machicolations placed on the top the brackets of which 
 support exposed and embattled parapets. 
 
 By continuing to go down and follow the crowning of 
 the ramparts of the XIV" century and those of the 
 XV" century, we will successively see : the Bastillon of 
 the Boucle Tower — repaired or simply drained in 1880, 
 — the interior arrangements of which can be studied ; 
 the Boucle Tower, shown in the figures 54 and 55; 
 the arms of Robert Jolivet which adorn a niche built, — 
 L of fig. 55 — in the east curtain, joining the Boucle 
 Tower ; the low Tower or loio battery^ terraced and dis- 
 posed in a barbette battery in the XYIII"* century ; 
 the Tower called Libertifs Tower which is as the North 
 Tower and the Bastillon of the Boucle Tower, filled with 
 earth and the higher terrace of which was changed into 
 a kitchen-garden; the Arcade or Squadron Tower, 
 which, preserved its primitive form and is overtopped 
 by the adjoining buildings of a guard-house the curious 
 front of which we have already seen — fig. 12 — on 
 entering the town, the visitor will be again at the Gate 
 of the Town — King's Gate — which is worthy of his 
 attention. 
 
 The Gate of the Town, King's Gate, built at the same 
 time as the walls and the East and South Towers, by 
 Robert Jolivet, is on the west front of the place. 
 
 Its approaches are protected, beyond the Barbican, 
 by the King's Tower and embattled walls estabhshed on
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 13 
 
 Niveau moyen de i/t Mef 
 
 mil ^ f •? I* I» 
 
 ^' 
 
 JZW. Ccrrayj'r. 
 
 Fig. 06. — Ramparts of the XV' century. — King's Gate. 
 West front. (Condition in 187:2.)
 
 140 
 
 MONT SAIMT-MICHKL 
 
 Fig. 5". — Ramparts of the XY'*" century. — Plan of the Entrance to the Town. 
 
 Kind's Gate,
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 141 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE 
 
 A Principal tioor. 
 
 A' Grooves of the portcullis. 
 
 A" Interior door towards the Town. 
 
 B Postern. 
 
 C Ditch. 
 
 C and C Drawbridges. 
 
 D King's Tower (first guard-house of the Town). Above a similar building 
 
 joining the King's dwelling. 
 E Curtain of the Barbican. 
 F Street of the Town. 
 G S(juadron or Arcade Tower. 
 H Watch-Tower. — Above and sideways, I, a second guard-house of the 
 
 Town. 
 
 the slopes and tops of the rock overlooking the Barbican 
 and the Entrance into the Town. This gate is a very in- 
 teresting work. Built in granite, as all the Edifices and 
 the Ramparts of the Mount, it is composed with great 
 art and made with very great care, though it follows 
 the numerous exigencies of the military defences. Pre- 
 ceded by a ditch on which the drawbridges fell, they 
 formed a first defence when they were drawn up. The 
 principal Gate, for the use of carts, and the lateral pos- 
 tern lead to the Town. Above the doors is the dwelling 
 of the doorkeeper or King's Divelling^ he is the com- 
 mander of the door, keeping it for the king. 
 
 The principal passage and that of the corresponding 
 postern are on the level with a first guard-house, built in 
 the lower floor (ground floor) of the King's Tower. The
 
 42 
 
 BIONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 Fig. 58.— Ramparts of the XV'"" century.— Section of the King's door, 
 (Restoration.)
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 143 
 
 large passage was closed, beyond the drawbridge, by 
 two doors, one interior, protected by the portcullis, 
 placed between the door and the flooring bank of the 
 draw bridge, — the portcullis of the XV" century still 
 exists, placed in its lateral grooves, — the other door 
 opened outside on the street of the Town. After the 
 doorkeeper had seen the comers and the contents of 
 the carts the principal gate was externally shut by 
 raising up the drawbridge, by means of the two lateral 
 arms, pulled down from the interior of the passage 
 — see fig. 58. The lateral drawbridge — of the pos- 
 tern — was equally worked from the interior and 
 closed externally the postern by coming vertically 
 against it in a recess built for that purpose. 
 
 On the exterior, the King's Gate, closed by its raised 
 drawbridge, its portculHs and its doors, was protected 
 by machicolations which adorn the higher part of the 
 front and overlook the ditch now filled up which was 
 on the base of the work. 
 
 The large opening of the door, shut by a very obtuse 
 pointed arch is surmounted by a large pediment which 
 still shows the traces of heraldic sculptures, laterally 
 placed between two small buttresses surrounding the 
 grooves of the arms of the drawbridge. It supports a 
 row of small trifoiled series of arches, on which rest the 
 principal brackets, with fine mouldings and higher ma- 
 chicolations which support an embattled and covered
 
 144 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 parapet joined to the battlement of the Towers and of 
 the walls. 
 
 In front of the King's Gate, on the west, the exterior 
 defences were completed, from 1425 to 1430 by the 
 construction of the Barbica?i which still exists and, 
 later, about 1530, by that of the Avancée before the en- 
 trance to the Town. 
 
 The Barbicrm is composed of a thick wall forming a 
 very acute projecture towards the south-west, leaving 
 between its front and the rock a very narrow space, 
 and forming internally a parade ground in front of the 
 Gate of the Town. The Gate and the Postern of the 
 Barbican open on the west front of the curtain, flanked 
 by a skew-back in the form of a fourth part of a circle, 
 in front of the entrance and ending at the foot of the 
 rock, inaccessible on this point. The walls are pierced 
 with recesses for falconnets and culverins, on the 
 south, on the west and in the skew-back; the top of 
 the walls is pierced with vertical loopholes and with 
 loopholes provided w4lli a circular sight in the middle 
 for powder, known since the XIV '" century, or for 
 " the hand-cannons which were used during the whole 
 time of the wars with the English. " (J. Quicherat, His- 
 toire du costimie, etc.) 
 
 The Avancée of the Barbican of the King's Gate taking 
 the place of the palisade or wooden fence, which for- 
 merly was at the place where the Entrance to the Mount
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 145 
 
 is actually was built by Gabriel du Puy about 1530. It 
 offers on the south a front joined to the west curtain of 
 the Barbican and before the entrance to this last work ; 
 at the west angle is a guard-house, on the left (the co- 
 mer's left) of the Postern and of the principal Gate; this 
 last was shut by a leaf opening externally in order to 
 resist better every attempt to break through it or even 
 to resist the pressure of the waters during the high 
 tides. The pediment of the large Gate had surely some 
 arms, — those of the king Francis the First without any 
 doubt. Between the Gate and the Curtain, a loophole 
 for a cannon in the wall protected the approaches of 
 the Avancée. Lastly, in the court, a small embattled 
 wall, leaning to the skew-back of the Barbican and com- 
 municating with the guard-house formed the second 
 line of defences of the Gate of the Barbican when that 
 of the Avancée was forced. 
 
 An illustration of the XYII"" century — fig. 59 — in- 
 dicates in front of the Avancée a barrier inside of which 
 stand the forked gibbet of the Abbey. We do not know" 
 any historical fact indicating that it was used for ano- 
 ther purpose than to manifest the power of the Abbots 
 and their seigneurial rights. 
 
 In the middle of that barrier a door shut by a panel 
 rolling on an horizontal axe opened. The name oîBa- 
 vole Gate given by some historians to the first entrance 
 to the Town, comes very likely from this kind of en-
 
 xMONT SAINT-MICIIKL
 
 AfON'T SAINT-Mir.HEI. 147 
 
 closure, havole instead of havoler (to tly about), indica- 
 ting a sliglit and easy to be managed fastening. 
 
 From the Avancée to the south west, Avhere were the 
 Avarehouses of the A])]:)ey, (he rock alone makes an in- 
 surmountable defence, its top is however edged by an 
 embattled wall joined to the exterior circular roads, 
 surrounding the Gardens of the Abbey on the south, 
 the south west angle of which is surmounted by a 
 watch tower. 
 
 At the foot of the rock, towards (he west, outside (he 
 Enclosure stood the Edifices which belonged to the 
 Abbey and included its warehouses, named the Fanils 
 or Fanis (from fœnum^ hay, or better, from faenile^ a 
 place where the hay is stored). They were re-erected 
 or rebuilt, in the beginning of the XIV"' century, on the 
 place of older constructions of the time of Robert de 
 Torigni. There remain some traces of these edifices, 
 on the west, on which stand the actual Jjarracks built 
 in 1818. The Entrance to the Fanils was protected by 
 a Tower [Fanils Towe}\ called by a corruption of lan- 
 guage : Stephanie Tower) flanking the south east angle 
 and the base of which is still seen; it was in the XVP 
 century, preceded by a ravelin pierced by recesses, which 
 still exists and. forms a first court. The warehouses 
 with their garrets, the abbatial oven, the stables, the 
 cattle sheds, etc., extended on each side of the second 
 interior court behind the gate protected by the Tower.
 
 H9. MONT SÂlNT-MlCHEL 
 
 From this second court, horses and even carriages could 
 ascend, by successive slopes to the table-land on which 
 were the Poulains, which started from this plateau and 
 ended at the basement of the Hostelry — see plan 
 fig. 20. The exterior front of the Fatiiis was probably 
 embattled and joined to the circular walls, also em- 
 battled, the ruins of which are seen and which were 
 placed on the escarpments of the rock up to the inac- 
 cessible points. The exterior defences of that side of 
 the A±»bey were finished in the XVI" century by Gabriel 
 du Puy, « a lieutenant of the King at the Mount. » He 
 erected the Tower or Gabriel Bastillon, where the rock 
 begins to be passable. Built in 1534, this work is 
 composed of three floors of ranking batteries , pierced 
 with embrasures of cannons, externally widened and 
 covered with an annular vault faUing very nearly in 
 the middle on an enormous pier. At each of the three 
 floors, the central pier is provided with a chimney- 
 flue which was used for the ventilation of the battery, 
 in order to take out rapidly the smoke of the powder; 
 those chimney-flues necessarily met in a chimney, the 
 shaft of which rose above the Platform, — before the 
 Mill was built. 
 
 This higher platform was surrounded by a parapet 
 pierced by slays, resting on machicolations which are 
 only now a traditional decoration, except on the side 
 of the rock, where they really protected the passage.
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL H9 
 
 On this parapet, towards the west was a watch tower 
 which is now used as a Hghthouse. The Gate, or pos- 
 tern of the Gabriel Tower, built on the lower floor to- 
 wards the rock and as much as possible concealed, was. 
 protected by a portculUs worked from the higher floor. 
 Staircases make the diverse floors communicate toge- 
 ther and end on the higher terrace, which is joined to 
 the circular walls built in the rock. A postern built 
 on the third floor of the Tower, allowed egress to the 
 Fanils court, a necessary precaution to communicate 
 internally with the adj acent defences or, if it was ne- 
 cessary, with the outside by the same way, for the 
 lower floor was invaded by the water at spring tides. 
 
 In 1627, when Don Placide de Sarcus was Prior of 
 the Abbey the Gabriel Bastillon was surmounted by a 
 small tower in which a wind mill was estabUshed. The 
 small tower was restored in 1880, after the purchase of 
 the Tower by the Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine 
 Arts, in 1876. The Ministry of pubhc works paid one 
 half of the cost. 
 
 After reading through the interesting miUtary work 
 about which we have just spoken, the visitor will be 
 able, at low water, by following the slopes near the Ga- 
 briel Bastillon and going round the rocks on the west 
 and on the south west to see Saint-Aubert's Chapel 
 
 13,
 
 150 
 
 MONT SAINT-MICHEL 
 
 which rises on the side of the rock and to admire one 
 of the most picturesque sites of Mont Saint-Michel. 
 
 
 Fig. ()0. — Sahit-Aubert's Chapel. 
 
 At last, to terminate suitahly the excursion which the 
 visitor will have made as complete as possible, if he 
 has followed our indications, he must visit an establis- 
 hment the name of which shows suiïiciendy its purpose 
 and its use i. e. the orjjhan asylum, where the charity 
 of those who, faithful to the old traditions, will be desi- 
 rous to mark by a good action their passage at Mont 
 Saint-Michel, may be exercised.
 
 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Title page 3 
 
 1. Frontispice 2 
 
 2. View of Mont Saint-Michel in 1878 4 
 
 3. Stamp of pilgrimage found at Mont Saint-Michel .... 6 
 
 4. General view of the south front. — Condition in 1872. . 28 
 
 5. — — Plan of Restoration . 29 
 
 6. Scaffoldings for the works of Restoration 30 
 
 7. General view of the west front 32 
 
 8. — — north front 34 
 
 9. — — east front 36 
 
 10. King's Gate. — Perspective view 38 
 
 11. Street of the town 41 
 
 12. Interior of the town. — King's gate and Watch-tower. . 43 
 
 13. Representations and moulds of Saint-Michel (stamps of 
 
 pilgrimage) 44 
 
 14. Representations and moulds of Saint-Michel (stamps of 
 
 pilgrimage) 44 
 
 15. Representations and moulds of Saint-Michel (stamps of 
 
 pilgrimage) 45 
 
 16. Representations and moulds of Saint-Michel (stamps of 
 
 pilgrimage) 45
 
 154 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Figures Pages 
 
 17. Indented mould of a stamp of pilgrimag-e 46 
 
 18. Proof in relief — — 46 
 
 19. The Chatelet. — Entrance of the Abbey 48 
 
 20. Ground plan of the Guard room. — 1" zone 50 
 
 21. — of the lower church. — 2"" zone 52 
 
 22. — of the higher church. — 3'" zone 54 
 
 2.3. Fortified bridge in the court in front of the church. ... 58 
 
 24. Transversal section of the Mount 62 
 
 25. Longitudinal section 63 
 
 26. Edifice of Roger II 65 
 
 27. Gallery of the Aquilon 66 
 
 28. ] ' Plan of the basements 67 
 
 ^^ f Constructions of \ ,-, , , c n k i ^ , r-o 
 
 29. } ^ , 1 r., • • { Ground plan of the Amliulatory. 6S 
 \ Robert de Torigni. / * •' 
 
 30. / ' Transverse section 70 
 
 31. Plan of the church 72 
 
 32. Plan of an arcade of the romanesque nave 74 
 
 33. Transversal section of the romanesque Church 70 
 
 34. Longitudinal section — 77 
 
 35. Chancel of the Chun-li 79 
 
 36. — — Section 82 
 
 37. North front of the Merveille 84 
 
 38. Merveille. — Transversal section from the south to the 
 
 north ' 80 
 
 39. Merveille. — Transversal section from the noi'th to the 
 
 south B7 
 
 40. Knights' hall 96 
 
 41. Refectory 99 
 
 42. Cloister. — Plan of the north-east angle 101 
 
 43. — View taken from the west gallery 102 
 
 44. — Sculptured angle tie, west gallery 104 
 
 45. — — — — 107
 
 TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS 133 
 
 Figures Pages 
 
 4fi. Cloisier. — Sculptured angle tie, east gallery 108 
 
 47. — — south — 109 
 
 48. — — — — 110 
 
 4U. Plan of the exterior defences of the Abbey. — Haihiran 
 
 of the Chatelet, large flight of steps, etc li?4 
 
 50. Large flight of steps, longitudinal section. — Condilion 
 
 in 1872 121 
 
 51. Large flight of sIpj», luuyiludiiuil section. — Ui'slorti- 
 
 tion 128 
 
 52. East front of the Merveille and nf the filiti.-cs forinin.LC 
 
 the entrance to the Abbey 1.30 
 
 53. Boulevard or east Bastillon 135 
 
 54. Ramparts of the X^""' century. — Section of llio Boucle 
 
 Tower 1.3H 
 
 55. Ramparts of the XV" century. — Boucle Towim- 1.37 
 
 .5f). — — King's Gate 130 
 
 57. Ramparts of the XY"" ceiituiy. — Plan of the entrance 
 
 to the town 140 
 
 58, Remparts of the XV"' century. — Sectiun uf the King's 
 
 Gate ' 142 
 
 50. View of ]\Iont Saint-Micln-I according to .Méruui 146 
 
 60. Saint-Aubert's chapel 150 
 
 61. Mont Saint-Michel in Cornwall (I'jiglandj 151
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Pages 
 
 Historical notice 7 
 
 Itinerary 31 
 
 General view 33 
 
 The town 40 
 
 The Abbey 49 
 
 Guards Room. — Belle-Chaise ' 56 
 
 Abbatial buildings 57 
 
 Church 61 
 
 Substructures 64 
 
 Nave 71 
 
 Chancel 78 
 
 Lower church, called crypt of the large Pillars 81 
 
 Merveille 84 
 
 Almonry 88 
 
 Cellar 90 
 
 Knights' hall 94 
 
 Refectory 98 
 
 Cloister 101 
 
 Dormitory 113 
 
 14
 
 158 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Fortifications of the Merveille 118 
 
 Fountain Saint-Aubert 118 
 
 Chatelet 121 
 
 Barbican of the Chatelet. — Large flight of steps on the 
 
 north and Staircase on the south 123 
 
 Large flight of steps and south Staircase 126 
 
 Ramparts 131
 
 'printing terminateci 
 
 H)ti tie t-wenfy-^ first '^uly eighteen hundred and cijlji^^tlree 
 ly ^. Carport and ^, ^^lammarion 
 
 EDOUARD CORROYER 
 
 ARCHITECT TO THE GOVERNMENT
 
 LIBRAIRIE GÉNÉRAIE DE L'ARCHITECTURE ET DES TRAVAUX PUBLICS 
 
 DUCHER ET C" 
 
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 de 1878 
 
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 Berthelon. 
 
 l" Série. — Filagre. Ornements à plat, Bordures, Frises. — 
 1 vol. in-folio. — 30 pi. en couleurs. — Prix: en carton. . 50 fr. 
 
 2« Série. — Bois et Marbres. — Lettres, Filage, etc. — 1 vol. 
 in-fol. — 30 pi. en couleurs. — Texte. — Prix : en carton. . 75 fr. 
 
 3= Série. — Décors et Attriljiits. — Cartouches, Lettre 
 ornées, Bronze, Trophées, etc. — 1 vol. in-folio, — 30 planches 
 couleurs. — Texte. — Prix : en carton 75 . 
 
 4"= Série. — Modèles tie lettres, sur 20 tons de fonds diflfé 
 rents. — 20 alphabets. — 1 vol. in-folio. — 20 planches en couleurs. 
 
 — Texte. — Prix : en carton 30 fr. 
 
 ALBUM DE L'ORNEMENTATION PRATIQUE, par une réunion d'orne- 
 manistes et de sculpteurs. — Cheminées, Chapiteaux, Clefs, Con- 
 soles, etc. — 2 beaux vol. grand in-4. de 110 photographies. — Prix : 
 en carton 150 fr. 
 
 ALBUM DE LA DÉCORATION USUELLE, fai.sant suite à Talbum de 
 V Ornementation pratique. —2 volumes grand in-4. — 110 photo- 
 graphies. — Prix : en carton 150 fr. 
 
 L'ART ET L'INDUSTRIE , organe du Progrès dans toutes les branches 
 de l'Industrie artistique. — 12 livraisons par an. — Chacune se 
 compose de six planches gravées, d'une planche en couleurs et de 
 deux pages de texte. — Septième année (1883). 
 
 Abonnement annuel : Paris 18 fr. 
 
 — Départements 20 fr. 
 
 L'ART PRATIQUE. — Recueil de documents choisis dans les ouvrages 
 des grands maîtres français, italiens, etc. — 12 livraisons de chacune 
 12 planches par année. — Cinquième année (1883). 
 
 Abonnement annuel : Paris 18 fr. 
 
 — Départements 20 fr. 
 
 MAGASIN DES ARTS ET DE L'INDUSTRIE. — Ouvrage complet. 
 Magnifique collection de modèles et de spécimens de Y Art indus- 
 triel moderne de tous les pays et sous toutes ses formes. —Prix ; 
 en carton 120 fr. 
 
 STATUES DÉCORATIVES du nouvel Opéra de Paris. — 1 volume de 
 35 photographies grand in-folio. — Prix : carton 90 fr.
 
 51, RUE DES ÉCOLES, PARIS 
 
 LE MOBILIER DE LA COURONNE et des grandes collections, par 
 R. Pfnor, architecte. — 3 vol- in-fol., contenant chacun 40 planches 
 gravées ou grands dessins au crayon, 10 grandes feuilles de détails 
 ou épures d'exécution, et un texte. — Prix : en carton.. . 120 fr. 
 
 MATÉRIAUX ET DOCUMENTS D'ARCHITECTURE ET DE SCULPTURE, 
 
 classés par ordre alphabétique, par M. Raguenet, architecte. — 
 Une livraison par mois, de 8 pages in-l. — Environ 350 motifs par 
 année. — Onze années parues. — Prix : Abonnement courant (Paris 
 et départements) 12 fr. 
 
 MOTIFS DIVERS DE SERRURERIE. Extrait de la Eevue générale de 
 l'Architecture et des divers ouvrages de M. César Daly. 
 l'= Partie. — Serrurerie ancieune et Ferrouorîe. — 
 
 Album de 35 planches gravées. — Prix : en carton 25 fr. 
 
 2' Partie. — Serrurerie niocleriie. — Album de 30 plan- 
 ches gravées. — Prix : en carton 25 fr. 
 
 LE CHARPENTIER- SERRURIER AU XIX'' SIÈCLE. — Constructions en 
 fer et en bois. — Publié sous le patronage de M. Alphand, direc- 
 teur des travaux de Paris, par J. FerranD; architecte. — Album de 
 100 planches tirées en diverses couleurs et accompagnées d'un texte. 
 Prix : en carton 60 fr. 
 
 RECUEIL PRATIQUE DE CHARPENTE, par MM. Gateuil et Bezan- 
 cenet, arcliitectes. — Choix de modèles variés. — 1 vol. in-4. — 
 100 pi. tirées en plusieurs couleurs. — Prix : en carton. ... 30 fr. 
 
 DICTIONNAIRE PRATIQUE DU SERRURIER , par M. A. Husson. — 
 1 vol. in-12, — Prix : broché 3 fr. 
 
 CHARPENTES EN BOIS. — Album renfermant divers types de Com- 
 bles, Halles, Hangars, Ponts, Estacades, Échafaudages et Étaye- 
 ments, etc., par M. Loyau, ingénieur. — Atlas iD-4 de 120 planches. 
 - Pris 25 fr. 
 
 DICTIONNAIRE DES OUVRIERS EN BATIMENT, par M. Jossier. — 
 1 fort vol. grand in-8. — Prix : broché 7 fr. 50 
 
 L'ART DE LA MENUISERIE, par Roubo. — Nouvelle édition, par un 
 Comité d'architectes, d'entrepreneurs de menuiserie, de chefs d'a- 
 telier, de professeurs de trait, etc. — Art du Trait, Menuiserie 
 dormante, Menuiserie du bâtiment, etc.— 1 fort volume de texte 
 in-8 et un album de 108 planches, grand in-4. — Prix : le volume 
 de texte broché, lalbum en carton 30 fr. 
 
 TARIF DE FILAGE, par N. Glaise, peintre, auteur de V Album du
 
 10 LIBRAIRIE GÉNÉRALE DE L'ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Peintre en Bâtiment. — Indispensable aux architectes, aux véri- 
 ficateurs, aux entrepreneurs de peinture, etc. — Brochure in-16, 
 avec 1 planche gravée, donnant les profils de toutes les moulures 
 les plus généralement employées dans la peinture décorative. — 
 
 — Prix 1 fr. 25 
 
 COURS DE CONSTRUCTION, par le major du génie N. de Vos. — 
 Connaissance des matériaux ; leur Résistance. — 2 vol. grand in-8. 
 
 — Nombreuses figures dans le texte. — Prix : les 2 vol. br. . 40 fr. 
 
 LA TECHNOLOGIE DU BATIMENT, par Th. Chateau. — Nouvelle 
 édition. — Étude de tous les matériaux employés dans les construc- 
 tions depuis leur fondation jusques et y compris leur décoration. 
 
 — 2 forts vol., avec bois intercalés. — Carte géologique de la France 
 en couleurs. — Prix : broché 30 fr. 
 
 DE L'HUMIDITÉ DANS LES CONSTRUCTIONS ET DES MOYENS DE 
 S'EN GARANTIR, par M. Philippe. — 2^ édition, illustrée. — Prix : 
 broché 6 fr. 
 
 DANGERS, AU POINT DE VUE SANITAIRE, DES MAISONS MAL 
 CONSTRUITES, par le docteur Pridgin Teale. Traduit de l'anglais, 
 par M. KiRK, avec une préface de M. Siegfried, maire du Havre.— 
 1 vol. in-8, de 155 pages et 67 planches, cartonné à l'anglaise. — 
 Prix 12 fr. 50 
 
 ASSAINISSEMENT DE PARIS. — Suppression complète de la Vidange. 
 
 — Le système diviseur appliqué à l'égout, par M. Eug. Miotat, Ar- 
 chitecte -Voyer de la ville de Paris. Extrait de la Semaine des Con- 
 structeurs. — Plaquette in-8, de 41 pages, avec de nombreux bois 
 dans le texte. — Prix : broché 2 fr. 50 
 
 ASSAINISSEMENT DES ÉGOUTS ET DES HABITATIONS, par M. E. 
 Miotat, architecte expert. — Plaquette, 48 pages et 11 bois dans le 
 texte. — Prix 3 fr. 
 
 LA QUESTION DU FEU DANS LES THÉÂTRES, par M. Chenevier. — 
 Brochure de 68 pages grand in-8. — Prix : broché 3 fr. 
 
 TRAITÉ DES PARATONNERRES, par M. Callaud. — 1 vol. grand in-8, 
 nombreuses gravures. — Prix broché 7 fr. 50 
 
 TRAITÉ DE LA LÉGISLATION ET DE L'ADMINISTRATION DE LA 
 VOIRIE URBAINE, par M. A. des Cilleuls. — - 1 vol. grand in-8, de 
 700 pages. — Prix : broché 10 fr. 
 
 HISTOIRE DE LA LÉGISLATION DES TRAVAUX PUBLICS, par 
 
 M. Malapert, avocat. — 1 vol. — Prix : broché 10 fr.
 
 51, RUE DES ÉCOLES, PARIS 11 
 
 ÉTUDE THÉORIQUE ET PRATIQUE SUR LES MURS DE SOUTÈNE- 
 MENT, par M. DuBOSQUE. — 1 vol. grand in-8, 9 planches et 74 gra- 
 vures. — Prix : broché 10 fr. 
 
 MANUEL DES ENTREPRENEURS. — Ordonnances et règlements de 
 
 , police, par M. Desplanques. — 2 vol. grand in-8 de 448 pages. — 
 
 Prix 11 fr. 
 
 MANUEL DES LOIS DU BATIMENT, élaboré par la Société centrale 
 DES Architectes, voté en Assemblée générale. — Nouvelle édition, 
 entièrement refondue et considérablement augmentée. — 5 volumes 
 gr. in-S, imprimé sur beau et fort papier. — Prix : brochés, 40 fr. . 
 cartonnés à l'anglaise, avec fer spécial sur le plat, 45 fr. ; relié 
 demi-maroquin, 52 fr. — Ajouter 3 fr. 50 pour recevoir franco en 
 province. 
 
 TRAITÉ DES RÉPARATIONS (Lois du Bâtiment), par A. Le Bègue, 
 architecte expert près les tribunaux. — Réparations locatives: Gros 
 entretien. — Réparations usufruitières : Grosses réparations. — 
 Droits et obligations du Locataire preneur. — Charges du bail- 
 leur, etc. — Troisième édition, soigneusement revue par l'auteur 
 et notablement augmentée. — 1 vol. gr. in-8. — Prix : broché. 5 fr- 
 
 CARNET DU CONDUCTEUR DE TRAVAUX. — Recueil de formules, 
 tables, renseignements pratiques, par F. Vasselon, ingénieur civil. 
 — Seconde édition. — 1 vol. contenant plus de 3,000 formules et 
 350 figures intercalées dans le texte. — Prix : relié en forme de 
 carnet-portefeuille 7 fr. 25 
 
 SÉRIE OFFICIELLE DES PRIX DE RÈGLEMENT DE LA VILLE DE 
 PARIS. — Nouvelle édition simplifiée. — La série complète avec 
 
 les sous-détails. — Prix 30 fr. 
 
 La série dite de poche. — Prix : cartonné 11 fr. 
 
 SÉRIE DE PRIX APPLICABLES AUX TRAVAUX DE TREILLAGES ET 
 RUSTIQUE, établie par la Chambre syndicale des entrepreneurs de 
 
 treillages. — Prix : broché 4 fr. 
 
 Ce prix est réduit à 2 fr. pour les acheteurs de la Série officielle. 
 
 SÉRIE DE PRIX POUR LE RÈGLEMENT NORMAL DES TRAVAUX DE 
 SERRURERIE. — Charpentes métalliques, paratonnerres, sonnei'ies, 
 porte-voix, etc., avec de nombreux renseignements pour l'établisse- 
 ment des devis, par M. H. de Persin. — 1 vol. format de poche, de 
 170 pages. — Prix : cartonné 6 fr. 
 
 COLLECTION DES OUVRAGES DE M, MASSELIN, entrepreneur de 
 travaux publics, savoir :
 
 12 LIBRAIRIE GÉNÉRAXE DE L'ARCHITECTURE 
 
 liCS Honoraires «les Arcliîtectes , en matière de tra- 
 vaux publics et particuliers. — 1 vol. de 264 pages. — Prix. 12 fr. 
 
 Lia Responsaljîlîté des Arcliîtectes et «les En- 
 trepreneurs. — Seconde édition. — 1 vol. de 362 pages. — 
 Prix 12 fr. 
 
 L<es Devis «lepassés et Travaux supplémen- 
 taires. — 1 vol. in-8 de 166 pages. — Prix 6 fr. 
 
 L<es Locations immottilières s Ot»ligrations «les 
 propriétaires. — 1 vol. — Prix 10 fr. 
 
 IjCS Murs mitoyens. — Troisième édition. — 1 vol., 4 sup- 
 pléments et un album de figures. — Prix 22 fr. 
 
 lie Dictionnaire «lu Métré. — Commentaire sur la série 
 de prix de la Ville de Paris. — Nouvelle édition. — 1 vol. de 344 
 pages et 11 planches. — Prix 10 fr. 
 
 Formules «le statuts pour la constitution des Sociétés 
 anonymes. — Prix : par 5 ex. à la fois . 20 fr. 
 
 Devis «lescriptifs et Cahier «les cliarg-es. 
 Carnets-contrôles à l'usage des entrepreneurs. 
 {Demander les prospectus spéciaux.) 
 LE CONSEILLER DES PROPRIÉTAIRES ET DES LOCATAIRES, par 
 
 Emile Blanchard, architecte. — 1 vol. grand in-8, de 216 pages. 
 — Prix 6 fr. 
 
 TARIF DE CUBAGE DES BOIS EN GRUME, par M. Adrian. — 1 vol. 
 in-16 de 170 pages. — Prix : broché 2 fr. 50 
 
 MÉMENTO DU MÉTREUR -VÉRIFICATEUR, par M. Husson. — 4« édi- 
 tion. — Prix 1 fr. 25 
 
 CHAUFFAGE ET VENTILATION DES LIEUX HABITÉS, par M. P. Pla- 
 nât. — 1 vol. gr. in-8, plus de 300 gravures. — Prix : broché. 30 fr. 
 
 TRAITÉ DE COMPTABILITÉ A L'USAGE DES ENTREPRENEURS, par 
 
 M. DuGUÉ, ingénieur. — 1 vol. ia-8. — Prix : broché 4 fr. 
 
 Le Catalogue est envoyé franco contre demande. 
 
 * 
 
 Les prix portés sur ce Catalogue sont spéciaux à la France. 
 
 Pour l'étranger, il y a les frais en sus. 
 
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