XIth century
The Romanesque abbey church was founded on a series of crypts at the tip of the rock, and the first conventual buildings were attached to its north wall.
13th century
A donation from Philippe Auguste, King of France, made it possible to build the Gothic ensemble of the Merveille: two three-storey buildings crowned by the cloister and refectory.
14th and 15th centuries
The Hundred Years' War made it necessary to protect the abbey with a series of military constructions, enabling it to withstand a siege lasting over thirty years. The Romanesque choir of the abbey church, which collapsed in 1421, was replaced by the flamboyant Gothic choir at the end of the Middle Ages.
Along with Rome and Santiago de Compostela, this great spiritual and intellectual center was one of the most important pilgrimages in the medieval West. For almost a thousand years, men, women and children came here, along routes known as the "Chemin de Paradis", to seek the assurance of eternity from the Archangel of Judgment, the Weigher of Souls.
Nineteenth century
Turned into a prison during the Revolution and Empire, the Abbey required major restoration work from the end of the 19th century onwards. Since 1874, it has been under the care of the French Historic Monuments Department.
1966
The celebration of the monastic millennium in 1966 preceded the installation of a religious community in the former abbey dwelling, perpetuating the original vocation of this place: Prayer and Welcome. The Brothers and Sisters of the Monastic Fraternities of Jerusalem have been providing this spiritual presence since 2001. Parallel to the development of the abbey, a village began to take shape in the Middle Ages. It thrived on the south-eastern flank of the rock, sheltered by walls that mostly date back to the Hundred Years' War. The village has always had a commercial vocation.
1972
Listed as a "World Heritage Site" by Unesco in 1979, this tourist mecca now receives over 2.5 million visitors a year.
