\b0 The mount was originally a granite rock reaching to a height of 900 m (2950 ft), cut off
by the sea at high tide and surrounded by quicksands at low tide. As often happened with such exceptional, wild, and desolate sites in the Christian West, it has been dedicated to St Michael ever since the eighth century, when the Bishop of Avranches sa
w the archangel set his foot on the rock in a dream. The modest oratory constructed on the rock was soon replaced by a Benedictine abbey in the Romanesque style. This was later renovated in the Gothic style with monastic buildings, a cloister, and a chur
ch that can be regarded as one of the finest achievements of medieval architecture. Becoming a place of pilgrimage that drew people from all over Europe, the Mount \i ôin peril of the seaö\i0 was also a fortress ringed with ramparts that resisted attack
s by the English during the Hundred Years War. The bell tower crowned with a spire reaching to a height of 157 m (515 feet) that gives the island its inimitable silhouette was not actually built until 1897.\par
