One can hardly imagine how such a monument was built on this rock of barely 4 km2 and 960 metres in circumference. It all started out before the year 1000, first with a sanctuary dedicated to Saint Michael and then with the settlement of Benedictine monks. The fame of the abbey, which became a place of pilgrimage, and the strategic interest of the Mount contributed to its success. The Romanesque and Gothic arts were expressed in all their power on the granite rock, resulting in this formidable citadel where the religious and the military are intimately mixed. In an incredible superposition of ramparts, chapels, buttresses and churches, the Mont-Saint-Michel is an architectural feat.