# View of the cloister [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, French]() - Date: 1201-1250 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary The Benedictine abbey, The Merveille \(the marvelous\), was built between 1210 and 1228 on Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy. After the conquest of Normandy by the French king Philippe-Auguste, Mont-Saint-Michel was no longer merely an abbey situated in the middle of the Anglo-Norman kingdom. It was now a French outpost on the border with England formed by the Channel. It was rebuilt at the time in an extravagant way. Storerooms, accommodation for the various guests to the abbey, and a cloister had to be integrated into one building, for which there was really no more space on the steep cliff alongside the church. Therefore strong superstructures were built, which lend a fortress-like appearance to the building. Behind this external view, a series of rooms are hidden away, increasing in elegance from the lower level to the top level. The cloister at the very top is Mont-Saint-Michel's masterpiece. From the unvaulted ambulatory visitors look into the inner courtyard through two arcades set against each other. The narrow space between these rows of arches is spanned by a slender vault whose rib profiles cross over each other in parts like interwoven branches. ## Related artworks - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Aerial view]() - [Bird's eye view]() - [Burial lantern]() - [Castle]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()