Page 242 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

Exploring the Abbey
The three levels of the abbey reflect the monastic hierarchy.
The monks lived at the highest level. The abbot entertained
his noble guests on the middle level. Soldiers and pilgrims
further down on the social scale were received at the lowest
level. The present buildings bear witness to the time when
the abbey served both as a Benedictine monastery and, for Four bays of the
73 years after the Revolution, as a political prison. In 1017 Romanesque nave of
work began on a Romanesque church at the island’s highest
this church survive.
EXPERIENCE Normandy Chapel of Our Lady Underground. A monastery built on
Three were pulled
point, building over its 10th-century predecessor, now the
down in 1776.
three levels, La Merveille (The Miracle), was added to the
church’s north side in the early 13th century.
VISITING THE ABBEY
The admission fee includes
Protected by high
an optional guided tour,
available in English and walls, the abbey and
its church occupy an
lasting just over an hour. impregnable position.
Tours begin at the West
Terrace at the church level
and end in the almonry, The monks took their
where alms were dis­ meals in the refectory,
pensed to the poor. The a long, narrow room,
almonry is now a shop. flooded with light.
The rib vaults in the
Knights’ Room are
typically Gothic.
The small 15th-century
St Aubert’s Chapel
was built on an
outcrop of rock.

Three floors of
cannons point in
all directions from
Gabriel Tower.

Entrance

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