Elger Esser: Mont Saint-Michel

Description

"I went to Mont-Saint-Michel. It would be necessary here to stack up the superlatives of admiration, as man has crammed monuments upon rocks and nature rocks upon monuments", wrote Victor Hugo in 1836 after a visit to what is undoubtedly the most famous abbey in the world, in a mixture of enchantment and horror. The first stone of this unique architectural ensemble was laid on an island between Normandy and Brittany 1,000 years ago. Initially a primitive Roman-style church, it grew over the centuries, proving to be a strategic stronghold against the Vikings and Normans, never taken, and becoming a place of pilgrimage for believers from all over Europe. The French Revolution turned the monastery into an endangered prison, and it was Victor Hugo who committed himself to the restoration of Mont-Saint-Michel. In 1874, it was declared a historic monument, and Viollet-le-Duc restored the abbey buildings as well as the village and the fortifications, with the success that we all know and the resulting consequences in terms of tourism. Just over 100 years later, in 1979, the island was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracting 3.5 million visitors a year. To mark the millennium, Elger Esser (b. 1967), one of the leading exponents of the Becher School in Düsseldorf, photographed Mont-Saint-Michel and the surrounding seascape at all seasons and sea levels, transposing them into stunningly beautiful colour and black-and-white images. The project was commissioned by the French Centre des Monuments Nationaux. Schirmer/Mosel is publishing a book of the most beautiful images to mark the anniversary, together with an exhibition of the photographs on site from 1 April to 15 June 2024.