Abbaye Saint-Michel de Saint-Mihiel

Saint-Mihiel

In 708 or 709 — the very year in which, according to tradition, Aubert dedicated the church of Mont Tombe —, a count of Austrasia, Wulfoald, and his wife Adalsinde founded on Mont Castillon, a wooded height above the Meuse, a monastery dedicated to the archangel, no doubt to house relics brought back from Italy. A century later, around 814, Abbot Smaragdus, one of the scholars of the court of Louis the Pious and author of a commentary on the rule of Saint Benedict, came down with his monks into the valley, where the town of Saint-Mihiel grew up around them; the emperor exempted the abbey's convoys from tolls. Of the medieval church there survives the 11th-century porch tower; the nave, remade in the 17th, holds the Pâmoison de la Vierge, a group in walnut carved by Ligier Richier, a son of the town, around 1531. The monastic buildings, rebuilt between 1689 and 1775 in the classical taste, have kept their library, fitted out in 1775, with its panelling and its some nine thousand volumes, including seventy-four manuscripts from the 9th to the 16th century: it was called "the university". The monks left in 1791; the town hall settled within their walls. Saint-Mihiel is the witness of the other Michael, that of the Franks of the East, contemporary with the Mount and without a sea.

Wikipédia — Abbaye Saint-Michel de Saint-Mihiel ↗

Getting there : Centre of Saint-Mihiel, 35 km south of Verdun by the D 964. The abbey church of Saint-Michel is open every day (8 a.m.-7 p.m. from April to September, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in winter), free entry. The Benedictine library and the museum of sacred art, in the abbey buildings now the town hall, can be seen on guided tours in summer (Tuesday to Saturday, 2.30 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. in July); enquire at the Cœur de Lorraine tourist office.

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

Ambient sound