Cluny Abbey Building

History Visit Arts et Kenneth John Information History Visit Arts et Kenneth John Information History Visit Arts et Kenneth John Information History Visit Arts et Kenneth John Information Métiers Conant Métiers Conant Métiers Conant Métiers Conant ▲ ▲ ▲ ▲ English Glossary L’école des Arts et Métiers Archaeological digs Clerestory: a row of windows along the wall of a A school in an abbey Kenneth John Conant Cluny Abbey building. Galilee: in the Cluniac ritual, the space where monks When the last monks left in 1794, the monastic In 1928, Kenneth John Conant, an American A spiritual capital met on certain saint’s days. 2019. Imprimé en France, Traducteo. buildings were used for new purposes. architectural historian, was the first Maior ecclesia: Latin phrase meaning “largest church”. In 1801, a college was founded. It taught traditional person to take an archeological A thousand-year-old foundation Ogive: a diagonal arch built beneath a vault that marks traduction academic subjects, including literature, Latin, geography interest in Cluny Abbey. the vault’s end. and mathematics. He conducted the first excavations In 910, William the Pious, Duke of Aquitaine and Side aisle: the lateral aisle of a nave. But students were attracted to towns like Mâcon with a particular aim: to unearth Count of Mâcon, founded an abbey under the Kenneth John Triforium: a passage running above large arcades and and Tournus where they could learn more technical Conant, during the layout of the great church patronage of Saint Peter and Saint Paul that reported Marie-Hélène Forestier. Marie-Hélène Forestier. disciplines, and the establishment went into decline. an excavation and monastic buildings of the overlooking the inside of a nave. campaign in Cluny directly to the Pope. Through to the 12th century, Votive mass: a mass that is not part of a day’s liturgy In 1866, it was replaced by a technical college and in 1931. Middle Ages. the abbey grew considerably thanks to abbots like but chosen for special worship. a teacher-training school. His research was well documented, providing solid Odilo of Cluny and Hugh of Semur. As the mother foundations for today’s studies. house of over 1,000 monasteries, Cluny exerted Practical information réalisation graphique The birth of Arts et Métiers influence throughout Europe and became the heart of Archaeological digs at the end the West’s largest monastic order: the Cluniac order. Average length of visit: 2 hours. In 1891, a practical school opened and soon grew. It of the 20th century Guided tour. Héron. Jean-Benoît admitted over 300 students. Its first workshops were A long, slow decline Tours suitable for disabled visitors. built where the monks’ vegetable patches had been. In In the 1990s, further archeological research was carried illustration 1901, the school became the École des Arts et Métiers. out with broader aims: to understand the architecture, In the late Middle Ages, Cluny went Ever since, students have received training in general the different construction phases and how the premises into decline. In the 15th century, Gift and book shop engineering on the abbey’s site. Each year, the school were used. Abbot Jean de Bourbon restored The guide for this monument can be found in the Itinéraires collection and is available in 6 languages in the gift and book shop. takes in a new cohort of around 200 entrants who The transept and Congregation courtyard were studied order to the abbey but failed to spend two years in Cluny. They are known as the in full, both under and above ground. Since 2006, curb the downturn underway, Centre des monuments nationaux gadz’arts, a contraction of the gars des arts, literally which the French Wars of Religion Abbaye de Cluny research has continued and cast light on the chapter 71250 Cluny the “arts lads”. house and chancel of Cluny II, the church dating from accelerated in the 16th century. tél. 03 85 59 15 93 the year 1000. Other esteemed abbots were fax 03 85 59 82 00 [email protected] The founding of the Arts et Métiers The most recent excavations have explored the abbey’s appointed, but the Cluniac order no longer met early phases, focusing on the 10th-century chapel and expectations. www.monuments-nationaux.fr th In the late 18 century, the Duc de la Rochefoucauld, former infirmary, near which a remarkable trove a colonel in Louis XVI’s army, set up a school for of coins was discovered in 2017. Reconstruction and destruction orphans and children of soldiers. Subjects taught included reading, writing and arithmetic, and the In the middle of the 18th century, an extensive pupils were also trained to become stonemasons, programme to rebuild the monastery began: the © Patrick Müller / Centre des monuments nationaux ; musée d’Art et d’Archéologie, Cluny. Cluny. d’Art musée et d’Archéologie, nationaux ; des monuments © Patrick Müller / Centre cabinetmakers, locksmiths and suchlike. At the same medieval buildings were razed and replaced with time, they followed military discipline and exercises. a classical-style complex. crédits photos The French Revolution disbanded monastic orders, the site’s buildings were sold off and the abbey’s most devastating period of destruction continued into the 19th century. History Visit Arts et Kenneth John Information Métiers Conant ▲ 15 8 8 The Jean de Bourbon chapel is named after the Remains of the abbey within the town 14 abbot who ordered construction of it, as his funerary 15 10 chapel, in around 1460. The chapel was designed 17 Abbot Hugh’s hostelry is one of the largest 11 in a flamboyant Gothic style and features a rich decor remaining buildings from the late 11th-century. of corbels depicting Old Testament prophets. These Guests stayed upstairs and their horses were kept supports once held statues that later disappeared, 5 downstairs. It now houses the town’s theatre and 7 12 probably during the French Wars of Religion. an exhibition room. 13 9 The cloister forms the monastery’s heart. The 18 Jean de Bourbon’s palace, built in the 15th century, 9 21 4 monastic buildings are positioned around and centred is now home to Cluny’s museum of art and archaeology. 2 on the cloister’s galleries. Dating from the 18th century, A model represents the town at its peak, in the 6 it replaced the medieval cloister and part of Cluny II, 13th century. 1 3 the church in the year 1000. The basement rooms display outstanding examples 17 10 The chapter house, where monks gathered each day, of sculptures from the Maior ecclesia*. The great 19 opens out into the cloister. The pillars originally divided tympanum is exhibited on the ground floor. the room into two: one half is now concealed by 16 On the first floor are many sculptures from medieval today’s buildings. houses in Cluny, illustrating civil architecture. 11 The chancel of Cluny II was discovered in 19 The ante-nave can be reached via an imposing archaeological excavations. The slab formed the base staircase between the remains of the two Baraban 18 of the main altar of the church in the year 1000. towers that once flanked the entrance doorway. This 20 12 The monks’ lavatorium, at the end of the so-called ante-nave was added around 1130. The column bases N “450-foot” gallery, opened out into the refectory, have been recreated. which has since been destroyed. 20 The gate of honour, dating from the 12th century, 13 The 18th-century monastery buildings form a served as the abbey’s main entrance in the form of U-shape. The classical architecture is punctuated with a triumphal arch. Some of its decor remains, recalling The abbey is made up of many large but disconnected 3 The Galilee* passage is a gallery that opens out decorative features on the wrought-iron balconies. antiquity with Corinthian capitals and fluted pillars. buildings, some nested in the town, others home into the 18th-century cloister and the nave’s remains. 14 The flour store, dating from the 13th century, 21 The national stud, which dates from the to an engineering school. 4 From the Congregation courtyard, the most is the only remaining medieval domestic building and 19th century, was built partly where the church 1 Today, visitors enter the abbey via the so-called Pope spectacular remains of the Maior ecclesia* can be was used to store food. once stood and is now used for equestrian shows. Gelasius’ palace. This 14th-century building was altered viewed: the large transept’s south wing and the Holy The larder beneath it is vaulted with ogives*. many times, its facade especially undergoing changes, Water bell tower. Above it, the flour store is covered with framework including full remodelling in the 19th century. Only the 5 The great transept features a cupola peaking at consisting of semicircular arches. Visitors can see the top-storey clerestory* is still medieval. Inside, a timeline 31 metres. Uninterrupted columns rise up to capitals, eight capitals that formed part of the Maior ecclesia* traces the abbey’s 1,100 years of history. the chapels are crowned with big apertures and apse that housed the chancel. In the middle is an 2 The small cloister features examples of Cluniac the arch of the small side aisle* is capped with a blind altar table dating from the 11th century. sculpture from the 12th century to the 17th century, triforium* and tall windows. Many of its aspects 15 The abbey’s fortified enclosure included many which illustrates the continuity of artistic output recall ancient architecture. towers, like the Round Tower and the Mill Tower, th at Cluny.

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