Mont-saint-Michel : Immensity

The photographer's eye offers a unique view of this great monument, placed on UNESCO's World Heritage list in 1979, which stands on a rocky islet on the bay of the same name at the mouth of the river Couesnon in Normandy. Once known as Mont Tombe, it was consecrated to the worship of the archangel Michael in 708 with the construction of a small oratory. In 966, Richard I, Duke of Normandy, founded the Benedictine monastery. A few years later, in 1017, Abbot Hildebert II began the great construction project, although because of economic difficulties, it was not completed until 1502, five centuries later. A ring wall surrounds the town, traversed by a single road lined with dwellings, most of which date back to the 15th and 16th centuries. The monastery stands on the top of the rock with the abbey in the middle. Olivier Meriel captures the majesty of Mont-Saint-Michel, the 'Pyramid of the seas', in forty-five sublime black-and-white photographs.