Mont Saint Michel in France - an island with a height of 78 meters, Benedictine abbey

An island 78 meters high on the Normandy coast of France, in the Bay of Saint Michael, crowned with the statue of Archangel Michael placed on the church spire at an altitude of over 155 meters.

The island has its name in honor of Archangel Michael, who according to legend has appeared to the bishop of a neighboring city, ordering him to build an abbey in his honor. The abbey gradually transformed from a modest chapel into a huge fortress.

On the island apart from Grande Rue - a narrow street leading through the village to the abbey's foot are also: souvenir shops, restaurants and hotels, granite walls, underground rooms, stairs towers and crypts. You can visit there: "Salle des Hotes" - reception hall for important guests, "Salle des Chevaliers" - a four-nave knight's hall with a length of 20 m, "Crypte des gros Piliers" - with 19 pillars with a circumference of 5 m each and a cloister above the hall knight with 220 exquisite columns.

As many as 53 times a year the water rises so much that the hill with the mainland of France is connected only by a narrow dam with a length of about 1.8 km.

Every year more than three million people come to the island to visit the mountain and the old chapel "Saint-Michel-au-Péril-de-la-Mer" (" Saint Michael in maritime danger "). It is the second (after Paris) most popular place in France. And when it comes to specific monuments, only the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre enjoy more sympathy in France.

Today there is a danger that the island will become a peninsula due to the deposition of sediment by the tides and sand and silt remaining in the bay. Every year, 50000 trucks of new mud and sand remain in the bay.

Due to the application of very large amounts of sand by sea waves, the authorities have decided to separate Mont Saint Michel from the continent. The project of extracting and transporting 2 million cubic meters of sand from the bottom will cost almost a quarter of a billion euros. After its completion, the island will be connected to the shore with a two-kilometer glass footbridge.

The granite blocks used for construction were brought from a very long distance. The construction of the entire abbey lasted 500 years.

As many as 61 buildings on the island have been recognized as historical monuments.

In 1979 it was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.