#St. Aubert

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Iconic Mont Saint-Michel Abbey celebrates 1,000 years

By Solène Tadié

13 June 2023

It was exactly a millennium ago that the first stone of the abbey church of Mont Saint-Michel in French Normandy was laid.

The monument that the poet Victor Hugo called the “Khéops of the West” has since become one of the highest symbols of French Catholic identity and one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the world, with more than 3 million visitors a year.

This important anniversary will give rise to a number of celebrations that will continue through the fall of 2023.

Standing on relatively inhospitable terrain, enthroned on a rocky islet less than a kilometer in diameter, surrounded by a vast sandy plain subject to the vagaries of the tides, the UNESCO World Heritage Site has stood the test of time, offering itself as a spectacle for dozens of generations to see.

Indeed, the history of this place of prayer and pilgrimage was as precarious and tumultuous as its surroundings.

While the construction of the present abbey church dates back to 1023, a first church dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel is said to have been built as early as 708 on the mount, then known as Mont-Tombe.

According to “Revelation,” the oldest text reporting the context of the abbey’s construction (written around the beginning of the 11th century), St. Aubert, then-bishop of Avranches, was visited three times in a dream by the archangel, who instructed him to erect a sanctuary in his honor on the summit of the site “so that he whose venerable commemoration was celebrated at Mont Gargan [the first great shrine dedicated to the Leader of the Celest Army, in the Puglia region of Italy] might be celebrated with no less fervor in the middle of the sea.”

St. Aubert undertook the building of a first church with the capacity of about a hundred people, consecrated in October 709 and given the name Mont-Saint-Michel-au-péril-de-la-Mer.

The prelate installed 12 canons there, responsible for praying the Divine Office and welcoming local pilgrims.

The canons were replaced in the 10th century by Benedictine monks at the behest of Richard I, Duke of Normandy, who had little taste for the canons’ opulent lifestyle.

In 1023, the order undertook the construction of the abbey church we know today, based on three rock-cut crypts and the former chapel.

This ambitious project marked a decisive step in the international outreach of the site, where miracles abounded as the flow of pilgrims from all over Christendom expanded.

“This edifice is like Noah’s ark laid over the crypts,” said François Saint-James, a guide and lecturer at Mont Saint-Michel, in an interview with Le Devoir newspaper, underlining the architectural prowess required for this medieval project.

“It was a time when France was covered with a white cloak of churches, as a monk from Cluny once wrote. You have to imagine the gigantic scale of the work.

The granite blocks were cut on the Chausey islands, 34 kilometers from here.

Caen stone, a soft, light stone that’s easy to carve, was used. ... When, in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, the Romanesque choir collapsed, it was rebuilt in flamboyant Gothic style.”

While the abbey’s architectural evolution continued uninterrupted until the 19th century, one of its highest points was the construction of “La Merveille” (The Wonder) in the 13th century, a jewel of Norman Gothic art.

It consists of two buildings on three levels, supported by high buttresses, with a cloister and refectory, 80 meters above sea level, beneath which were built an almshouse, a storeroom, and guest rooms.

The fame of the shrine started to decline in the 17th century, when part of the abbey was turned into a prison by the royal power.

Seized by central government during the revolution, it became a detention center for priests deemed hostile to the Jacobin terror.

In the 19th century, the site, listed as a historic monument in 1874, was gradually returned to monastic life and its original vocation as a sanctuary.

The abbey’s distinctive silhouette was further enhanced by a neo-Gothic spire in 1897, topped by a gilded statue of the archangel.

To mark its 1,000th anniversary, a special tribute is being paid to the abbey that many have dubbed the “Wonder of the West” with the exhibition “La Demeure de l’Archange” (The Archangel’s Abode), retracing its glorious and tumultuous history through some 30 masterpieces, until November 5.

Many of these items, which include sculptures, scale models, statues, and silverware, will be on display to visitors to the abbey for the first time.

Another highlight of the many celebrations taking place over the summer and part of the autumn will be the “Millennium Solstice,” a never-before-seen light show projected onto Mont Saint-Michel from various spots in the bay on the evening of June 23.

The beauty of this sacred site, trodden by millions of pilgrims over the centuries, has been celebrated and immortalized in the writings of many great men of letters over the last few centuries, from Gustave Flaubert to Théophile Gautier and Victor Hugo.

In particular, it inspired the novel “Les Merveilles du Mont Saint-Michel” (1879) by the prolific writer Paul Féval.

He had already paid tribute to the monument a few years earlier, in “La Fée des grèves,” with these lines often quoted by admirers of the famous Mont:

“Twilight broke. Mont-Saint-Michel was the first to emerge from the shadows, offering the golden wings of its archangel to the reflections of the dawning dawn; then the sides of Normandy and Brittany lit up in turn.

Then again, a sort of light steam seemed to rise from the receding sea, and all was veiled except for the statue of Saint Michael, which dominated this wide ocean of mist.”

[badassindistress]

—scenes, once the haunt of heroes—now lonely, and in ruins; ~ The Mysteries of Udolpho

[geraldofallon]

Professor Annabel St Aubert

She/Her

Name: Annabel St Aubert

Title: Foremost Correspondent

Motifs: eight-pointed stars, diamonds, clematis flowers, stars

Music: Beethoven’s Für Elise

[barghesthowls]

Reading about Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho

An innocent, and virtuous young woman, the orphaned Emily falls in the hands of a heartless villain named Montoni. He confines her in a grim and isolated castle full of mystery and terror. There she must cope with an unwanted suitor, Montoni’s threats, and the terrors and wild imaginings that threaten to overwhelm her. 

Jonathan Harker: she's just like me fr

[kajaono]

Emily is also from the Gascogne?!

Lmao, I will never be free from characters from the Gascogne

[bookqueenrules]

DD Season 2 Places Where Filming Occurred: Update to November 2023 post.

I originally did a post in early November of 2023 with filming spoilers up to that point. Link. Some of my speculations have already been confirmed. Here are some additional tidbits I collected. I did not have the time to research these in much depth. I would love it if someone does!

Chapel Saint Aubert in Mont St. Michael

A chapel may be a good spot for a resurrection.

Shipwrecked boat on St. Malo Beach. Filmed summer 2023 and November 2023.

Hoverport Tunnel: I think this one is most important for TDers.

The tunnel was filmed in November and December. The actor who plays Losang posted about it here:

So, at first, I thought this might be the Carol/Daryl reunion spot, but it's awful late in the season for that. Carol, Daryl, and Cordon were seen filming at this tunnel location. It was under tight security and closed to the public. Here are some more shots of the tunnel and some behind the scenes pictures of what is in part of the tunnel.

The outside:

Some of the final scenes were filmed here and not on location:

A few things about the tunnel. It is an old Hoverport Channel Tunnel connecting France to England. However, that doesn't mean that is how it will be used in DD. Also, just because the tunnel shoot was the last location, doesn't NECESSARILY mean that it will be where the season ends. I do think it will be very important, and it's something they tried to keep more under the radar than the rest of the location shoots. The tracks through the tunnel are obviously hugely symbolic in TWDU as places where characters choose a path that will lead to their salvation or their destruction. They also remind me of Daryl in Alone sitting next to the tracks and not choosing which way to go until the Claimers arrive. Even though Beth may not appear in the tunnel, I have a feeling it will an important location on the way to a Beth/Daryl and Beth/Carol reunion.

I know many people are saying this will be how season 2 ends:

That might very well be the case, but filming continued at the tunnel location AFTER these scenes were filmed. As we know from TOWL, they often film MULTIPLE endings especially if there is an important reveal at the end.

Thoughts?

[tantive404]

Leia Organa as the Gothic Heroine

“Through a dream landscape, . . . a girl flees in terror and alone amid crumbling castles, antique dungeons, and ghosts who are never really ghosts.

She nearly escapes her terrible persecutors, who seek her out of lust and greed, but is caught; escapes again and is caught; escapes once more and is caught . . . [and] finally breaks free altogether, and is married to the virtuous lover who has all along worked (and suffered equally with her) to save her."

-Leslie A. Fledler, Love and Death in the American Novel

The gothic novel is a genre of literature that has grown increasingly compelling to me. Defined by its mixture of romanticism and horror— or “wonder and terror”, with a “loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting”— these stories are known for their forbidden castles, ghostly mysteries, and, most centrally, their heroines, fleeing terrified into the night in a flowing white gown…

Over the years the gothic has become a genre dominated by the feminine and by women writers. And even though the first example of gothic literature, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto, was written by a man, the story is largely focused on its heroines. The central plot thread sees a corrupt tyrant prince pursuing a much younger princess for the sake of marriage and her desperate attempts to escape him, as she flees through his castle, through twisted corridors, trap doors, and all manner of danger.

I began to think of the relation between the archetype of gothic heroine and Star Wars’s female lead, Princess Leia Organa. After all, she is typically clad all in white and on the run from a dastardly Imperial villain of some sort. And it would not be so difficult for the Death Star to serve as an old manor, filled with secrets and danger… trap doors (garbage chutes), gaping chasms, masked phantoms (Sith Lords) and terrible, power-hungry old men.

The gothic heroine is a young woman often characterized by her virtue, innocence and beauty. She may be born into a position of high social status, with a wealthy or aristocratic family, or even be full-fledged royalty. Some time early in the story, however, she loses her privilege and power… orphaned, imprisoned, or otherwise inconvenienced. In Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, for instance, our protagonist Emily St. Aubert lives an idyllic life with her well-to-do parents, only for both to die and her fortune to be lost in the first act, where she is then given into the power of her aunt and eventually her villainous uncle-by-marriage, Montoni. Leia, too, was a happy and beloved child as the Crown Princess of Alderaan, even with the shadow of the Empire looming overhead… but is captured on a fateful mission for the Rebellion and sees her planet destroyed for her troubles.

And while a gothic heroine may be physically frail she has the mental fortitude and agency to be the one who drives the plot forward. Leia, too, subverts being placed the box of “damsel in distress” with her strong will and her active fierce participation in the rebel cause.

The consistent pattern of “escaping and being caught” is another that Leia follows quite clearly throughout the original trilogy… when we first meet her, she is fleeing from her Imperial pursuers, only to be overpowered and captured. She’s taken aboard the Death Star, endures torture, and gets rescued… only for the next movie to involve yet another game of pursuit between her and Vader where she’s eventually caught yet again at Bespin. After another escape, she opens the subsequent film with an attempt to rescue her (not-so) “virtuous lover” from his prison… and she is made a slave. She escapes with her own ingenuity to rejoin the Rebellion, is nearly defeated in the perilous final battle at Endor, but with the help of her allies, wins the day and all is made right. A typical fairy tale ending.

And then there are her villainous persecutors, of which there are primarily three— Vader, Tarkin, and Jabba.

The gothic heroine is often menaced by a powerful man,?usually bearing misogynistic or patronizing sentiments. He is dark and threatening, yet can also be alluring… and the heroine strives to escape his oppressive power. So too with Leia, as representative of the Rebellion, seeking to destroy the oppression of the Empire.

In short, Star Wars is a very melodramatic, archetypal tale, and Leia’s journey both illuminates and subverts that.

[chic-a-gigot]

La Mode illustrée, no. 22, 28 mai 1865, Paris. Toilettes de Melle Lise, 17, r. Nve. St. Augustin. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney

Description de toilettes:

Robe en toile écrue très-pâle. — Le bas de la jupe est bordé avec une corde en laine rouge, remontant sur toutes les coutures réunissant les lés; au-dessus de cette corde, c'est-à-dire sur le bord de la robe, se trouve une guirlande de coquelicots avec feuilles, et tiges, le tout brodé en laine. La jupe est nouée par devant avec une cordelière de laine rouge. Corsage blanc, en nansouk, brodé au point russe, en laine rouge. Paletot pareil à la robe, bordé et brodé comme la robe. Chapeau rond en paille d'Italie avec grande plume blanche et petite plume rouge. Gants nuance chamois. Ombrelle blanche recouverte de dentelle noire.

Robe en foulard lilas, festonnée par devant depuis les pieds jusqu'à la taille, avec des boutons en passementerie lilas, ornés de perles blanches. Au-dessus de l'ourlet de la jupe (cet ourlet a seulement 3 centimètres de largeur) se trouve une légère broderie en lacets lilas, très-étroits, mélangée de perles blanches. Corsage montant, orné d'une basque en forme d'habit, entièrement faite en passementerie lilas, mélangée de perles blanches. Le corsage est boutonné devant jusqu'au cou. Grand bournous en dentelle de laine blanche. Chapeau en tulle lilas, brodé en perles blanches, orné d'une très-courte frange en marabouts lilas qui entourent le visage. Ce chapeau a été dessiné chez Mme Aubert, modiste, rue Neuve-des-Mathurins, 6.

—

Dress in very pale ecru canvas. — The bottom of the skirt is edged with a red woolen cord, going up on all the seams joining the lengths; above this cord, that is to say on the edge of the dress, is a garland of poppies with leaves and stems, all embroidered in wool. The skirt is tied in front with a red wool cord. White bodice, in nansouk, embroidered in Russian stitch, in red wool. Overcoat similar to the dress, bordered and embroidered like the dress. Round Italian straw hat with large white feather and small red feather. Chamois shade gloves. White umbrella covered with black lace.

Dress in lilac scarf, scalloped in front from the feet to the waist, with lilac trimmings buttons, adorned with white pearls. Above the hem of the skirt (this hem is only 3 centimeters wide) is a light embroidery in very narrow lilac laces, mixed with white pearls. High bodice, adorned with a basque in the shape of a coat, entirely made of lilac trimmings, mixed with white pearls. The bodice is buttoned in front to the neck. Large bournous in white wool lace. Hat in lilac tulle, embroidered with white pearls, adorned with a very short fringe of lilac marabouts which encircle the face. This hat was designed by Mme Aubert, milliner, rue Neuve-des-Mathurins, 6.

[wheresjonno2023-complete]

@treeaspen writes:

#girls give him a bachelor party

@c-schroed writes:

#a GHSG party sounds nice indeed

@per4mancecheck writes:

#bach party #yes brides to be have been abbreviating it such

HMMMMMMM

Jonathan Harker: w-what's all this???

Catherine Moreland: we've decided to throw you a bach party

Pamela Andrews: we're all just so happy to see your virtue at last rewarded

Jonathan Harker: uh... what? Oh you mean a bachelor's party?? I'm not sure Sister Aga-

Emily St. Aubert: we do not

Christine Daée:

Jauchtet Gott in allen Landen!

Was der Himmel und die Welt -

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

With The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe raised the Gothic romance to a new level and inspired a long line of imitators. Portraying her heroine's inner life, creating a thick atmosphere of fear, and providing a gripping plot that continues to thrill readers today, The Mysteries of Udolpho is the story of orphan Emily St. Aubert, who finds herself separated from the man she loves and confined within the medieval castle of her aunt's new husband, Montoni. Inside the castle, she must cope with an unwanted suitor, Montoni's threats, and the wild imaginings and terrors that threaten to overwhelm her.

submit a horror book!

[lauralot89]

Support Group for Victorians Stuck in Fancy Old Buildings with Creepy Aristocrats

Current Members:

Jonathan Harker

Edith Cushing

Daniel of Mayfair

Emily St. Aubert

[badassindistress]

I wrote @pioup-pioup a dead boy detectives crossover precisely calculated to take her out at the kneecaps.

Everyone, please enjoy Edwin meeting a Damsel in Distress~✨

[attemptedvictorian]

I refuse to make fun of Emily St. Aubert for constantly fainting even though it does get concerning at times. Oh, she faints every chapter? Good for her. More representation for the iron-deficient folks out there. Ann Radcliffe is doing it for the fans.

[plutodetective]

Is Jonathan the only case of being engaged to someone (who isn't her captor) from the start?

As far as I know, he is! I, to my shame, haven't read The Mysteries of Udolpho yet, but I checked and Emily St. Aubert's engagement begins before she meets her captor, but she isn't engaged at the start of the book. She meets her fiancé at the beginning of the story, and I think she's the only other case where the Heroine is engaged when she meets the captor. Everyone else either marries the captor, ends the book single, of gets engaged after The Horrors have already begun.

[aloneinstitute]

🇫🇷 Le Mont-Saint-Michel (pronounced [mɔ̃ sɛ̃ mi.ʃɛl]; English: Saint Michael's Mount) is an island and commune in Normandy, France. It is in the Manche department. It is located about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from the country's northwestern coast. It is at the mouth of the Couesnon River near Avranches. It is 247 acres (100 ha) in size and it has a population of 44 (2009). People that live there are called the Montois. The island has had strategic fortifications since ancient times. The name Mont-Saint-Michel comes from the monastery built there in the eighth century AD. The way in which the town is built is an example of how feudal society worked. At the top there is God, the abbey and monastery. Below this, there are the great halls, then stores and houses. At the bottom, outside the walls, there are the houses of fishermen and farmers.

Mont-Saint-Michel is one of France's most famous landmarks. The island and its bay are part of the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Every year, more than 3 million people visit it.

History

Mont-Saint-Michel was an Armorican stronghold of Gallo-Roman culture in the sixth and seventh centuries. In the seventh century, the Franks took the mount. From about the fifth to the eighth century, Mont-Saint-Michel was part of a region called Neustria. At the start of the ninth century, it was an important place in the marches of Neustria.

Inside the walls of Mont-Saint-Michel.

Before the eighth century, the island was called Mont Tombe (Latin: tumba). The Catholic Church built the first religious building in the eighth century, and the mount became Mont-Saint-Michel. According to legend, the Archangel Michael appeared in 708 to St. Aubert, the bishop of Avranches. The angel told him to build a church on the mount. Aubert didn't listen to the angel until Michael burned a hole in the bishop's skull with his finger.

The king of the Franks could not defend his kingdom against the attacks of the Vikings. The king agreed to give the Cotentin peninsula and the Avranchin, including Mont-Saint-Michel, to the Bretons in the 867 Treaty of Compiègne. For a short time, the mount belonged to the Bretons. In effect, these lands and Mont-Saint-Michel never belonged to the duchy of Brittany. They remained separate bishoprics from the newly created Breton archbishopric of Dol. When Rollo named Franco as archbishop of Rouen, the diocese of Rouen took the lands and the mount. They became part of Normandy once again, but not officially.

The mount became strategically important again in 933 when William "Long Sword" (the Duke of Normandy) annexed the Cotentin Peninsula from the weakened Dukes of Brittany. This made the mount part of Normandy officially. This is shown in the Bayeux Tapestry, which commemorates (helps remember) the Norman conquest of England in 1066. The tapestry shows Harold, Earl of Wessex helping two Norman knights from the quicksand around Mont-Saint-Michel during a battle with Conan II, Duke of Brittany. Norman dukes paid for the development of the abbey in the following centuries. It became a good example of Norman architecture.

In 1067, the monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel gave its support to Duke William of Normandy in his claim to the throne of England. William gave houses and grounds on the English side of the Channel as a reward. These included a small island off the southwestern coast of Cornwall. It became a Norman priory named St Michael's Mount of Penzance. It looks similar to Mont-Saint-Michel.

During the Hundred Years' War, the English made many attacks on the island. They were not able to take it due to the abbey's very good fortifications. The English first attacked the mount in 1423, and then again in 1433. Thomas Scalles was the leader of the English army. Scalles left two wrought iron bombards when he stopped his attack. They are still there today. They are known as les Michelettes. The resistance at Mont-Saint-Michel gave hope to the French, especially Joan of Arc.

Cannons left by Thomas Scalles at Mont-Saint-Michel on 17 June 1434. Currently (June 2013), only the second cannon, the one closer to the wall, is shown. It is inside the entrance to the mount's outer wall.

When Louis XI of France founded the Order of Saint Michael in 1469, he wanted the church of Mont-Saint-Michel to become the chapel for the Order. However, it was far from Paris so this was not possible.

The wealth and influence of the abbey helped other foundations, for example St Michael's Mount in Cornwall. However, it started to become less popular as a centre of pilgrimage due to the Reformation. At the time of the French Revolution, there were almost no monks living there. The republicans closed the abbey. It became a prison. At first, this was to hold clerical enemies of the French republic. Later, there were also important political prisoners at the mount. In 1836, famous figures, such as Victor Hugo, started a campaign to restore the mount. The prison closed in 1863, and the mount became a historic monument in 1874. Mont-Saint-Michel and its bay became UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1979. The factors for listing included cultural, historical, and architectural importance, as well as man-made and natural beauty.

Plan of the mount

In the 11th century, Richard II of Normandy chose an Italian architect called William de Volpiano to build the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel. Volpiano had already built the Abbey of Fécamp, in Normandy. He designed the Romanesque church of the abbey. He chose to place the transept crossing at the top of the mount. He also built a lot of crypts and chapels below the ground. These are to support building above, because it is very heavy. Today, Mont-Saint-Michel has a church of Romanesque style.

Robert de Thorigny was a great supporter of Henry II of England. Henry was also Duke of Normandy at this time. Thorigny made the structure of the buildings stronger. He also built the main fa��ade of the church in the 12th century. In 1204, the Breton Guy de Thouars, a friend of the King of France, attacked the mount with an army. He set fire to the village and killed lots of people. However, he had to retreat (leave) under the powerful walls of the abbey. The fire extended to the buildings, and the roofs burnt. Philip Augustus, Thorigny's friend, was unhappy about the cruel actions and the destruction. He offered Abbot Jourdain some money to build a new Gothic-style architectural set. The abbot added the refectory (dining room) and cloister.

Charles VI added big fortifications to the abbey-mount. He also added building towers and courtyards, and he made the ramparts stronger.

CC iDrone Aerials

#YourEarth #view #dronephotography #france 👉👉👉👉 Most Beautiful Images — em Monte Saint-Michel.

[xoxogossiphobbit]

Bouchardon, Edmé

Second book of various figures of academies drawn after the natural Oblong folio (25 x 37 cm), suite of 8 (out of 12) prints engraved by Jean Aubert, Aveline (junior) and Perreneau. Naked men and naked women. Poor condition: stains, horns... Drawings by the famous sculptor Edmé Bouchardon (1698-1762), this rare title is unknown in Cicognara and Berlin Katalog Paris chez Huquier, rue St Jacques [after 1738]

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