Mont Saint-Michel During the French Revolution
The Revolution ended a thousand years of monastic life on Mont Saint-Michel in a single decree. The monks were expelled by 1791, the rock was renamed Mont Libre, and the abbey spent the next seven decades as a state prison that held some 14,000 inmates before it closed in 1863.
The short version
- The monks were expelled by 1791, the rock was renamed Mont Libre, and the abbey held some 14,000 prisoners before Napoleon III closed the prison in 1863.
- The prisoners’ treadwheel still stands in the abbey and is on the visit route.
- Victor Hugo’s campaign closed the prison and led to the historic monument listing of 1874; the prison decades kept the building roofed while other abbeys were quarried away.
- Our Mont St. Michel Day Trip includes the abbey ticket, and the guide covers the prison years along with the rest in about three hours on the rock.
- The abbey opens 9:00 to 19:00 from May to August and 9:30 to 18:00 the rest of the year. For a private van from your Paris address, the Private Mont St. Michel Day Tour runs every day except Christmas, New Year’s Day and May 1.
The Prison Years
The first prisoners were priests who refused the revolutionary oath, locked in the abbey that had trained men like them. Under later governments the Mont held common convicts and the century’s political prisoners, including the republicans Armand Barbès and Auguste Blanqui after the 1839 rising. Cells and workshops filled the Romanesque halls, and a giant wooden treadwheel, turned by prisoners to haul supplies up the rock, still stands in the abbey and turns up on every visit.
The Campaign That Saved It
Victor Hugo visited in 1836 and spent years attacking the prison in print, writing that caging men in the abbey was like shutting a toad inside a reliquary. The campaign worked twice over: Napoleon III closed the prison by decree in 1863, and the argument that the building itself deserved protection carried through to its listing as a historic monument in 1874 and the restorations that followed. The irony stands: the prison’s ugly decades kept the abbey roofed and standing while other monasteries were quarried away. The timeline page carries the story forward to the monks’ return. The abbey ticket is included on our Mont St. Michel Day Trip from Paris, with three hours on the rock.
The Prison Years Inside the Abbey Today
The visit route passes through the rooms the prison used. The treadwheel stands in its original position, where prisoners walked inside it to haul supply sledges up the rock face; the great Romanesque halls below the church held the cells and the workshops, where inmates made straw hats for sale outside.
The monks came back. Benedictines returned in 1966 for the abbey’s millennium, and since 2001 the Fraternités Monastiques de Jérusalem have kept daily services in the abbey church, which visitors can attend. The historic monument listing of 1874 is why the building you walk through is whole.
Allow two hours inside the abbey to see the prison rooms as well as the church and cloister; the treadwheel comes near the end of the route.
Frequently Asked Questions
Was Mont Saint-Michel really a prison?
Yes, from the Revolution until 1863. Some 14,000 prisoners passed through the abbey in those decades, from refractory priests to the political prisoners of the nineteenth century.
What is the big wooden wheel in the abbey?
A prisoner-powered treadwheel from the prison era. Men walked inside it to winch supply sledges up the rock, and it remains in place on the abbey visit.
Why did the prison close?
A public campaign led by Victor Hugo and others shamed the government into it, and Napoleon III closed the prison by decree in 1863. Protection as a historic monument followed in 1874.
Our Most Popular Trips From Paris
Visit the historic abbey and environs. Marvel at this UNESCO World Heritage site.
Mont St. Michel, Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery packed into one long day.
See the D-Day beaches and Mont Saint Michel. Overnight in charming Bayeux.
