How The Mont Saint Michel was controlled by the Vikings and Normand dukes.

In 933, the dukes of Normandy ceded the Cotentin Peninsula to the Viking Rollo and his descendants. The Mont Saint Michel Abbey, located on the peninsula, was subsequently controlled by Benedictine monks from Fontenelle.

The Nave

The work of restoration commenced in 1873 under the direction of the commission of historical buildings, necessitated, in 1875, excavations under the flagstones of the large platform of the west, which revealed the foundations of the first three arcades. The plan shows these discoveries; it indicates also: the constructions made in front of the Romanesque portal by Robert de Torigni, this abbot’s grave, and his successor Don Martin’s. 

Construction of the Mont Saint Michel from 1600 to 1900.

The new inhabitants of Mont Saint-Michel kept the buildings from going to ruin but they do not seem to have taken any great care to keep them intact. In 1627, they built a windmill on the bastion Gabriel and made many interior changes. Many marks of their dissensions are unfortunately visible and but few of their works are to be found now. 

History of Mont Saint Michel from 1200 to 1400

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.

From Vikings to Kings, early years of the Mont Saint Michel.

After many vicissitudes, the church started 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.