Everything began with a dream of the bishop of Avranches, to whom Saint Michael appeared in 708. In 966, the Benedictine monks settled there at the request of the Duke of Normandy. In no time, the abbey became a major place of pilgrimage in the Christian West, as well as one of the centres of medieval culture where a large number of manuscripts were produced. Mont-Saint-Michel was then nicknamed the “City of Books”. Over the centuries, as much a political and intellectual crossroads, the abbey was visited by a large number of pilgrims, including several kings of France and England.