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What looks like a castle out of a fairy-tale book on the coast of northwestern France is actually one of Christianity’s premier pilgrimage sites. For almost a thousand years people have marveled at the Gothic island-abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. The site has earned its fame from the splendid sanctuary that rests atop it and the world-famous tides that surround it. It was founded in 709, when St. Michael the Archangel appeared to the local bishop and instructed him to build a chapel in his honor on the island. In subsequent centuries, the structure was enlarged and rebuilt into a remarkable abbey. Today, Mont-Saint-Michel is home to a small community of religious brothers and nuns from the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem. More than two million pilgrims and visitors travel annually to the shrine and monastery to behold the awe-inspiring work of the Middle Ages.
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