Abbaye royale de Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm

Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm

In 682, Ansoald, bishop of Poitiers, settled monks from Noirmoutier on one of the limestone islets emerging from the gulf of the Pictones, that inland sea which would become the Marais poitevin; the monastery, dedicated to the archangel, is a generation older than that of Mont Tombe. Nothing remains from that time: the Norsemen, who came up the rivers of the West in the 9th century, destroyed it, and it was not until the dukes of Aquitaine, in the 10th century, that it was raised again. The monks drained the marsh, built dykes, and in the 13th century the abbey fell into the hands of the Poitevin lord Savary de Mauléon, who fortified it. Become a royal abbey after the concordat of 1516, laid waste by the Protestants in 1569, it was taken over by the Benedictines of Saint-Maur, who rebuilt in the 17th century the buildings visited today: the chapter house and the refectory, where Maurist classicism rests on Romanesque and Gothic remains. Sold at the Revolution, the property of the same family since 1818, the abbey lets itself be seen only on a guided tour, in summer, with its gardens. It is a reminder that the cult of Michael, before it was Norman, was Poitevin, and that it already loved islands.

Wikipédia — Abbaye royale de Saint-Michel-en-l'Herm ↗

Getting there : In the town, 12 km south of Luçon by the D 746. Private property open to guided tours only, in June (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) and in July-August (Monday to Friday), departures at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.; admission charged. Enquire at the Sud Vendée Littoral tourist office.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound