The Abbaye of Cluny

Description

Founded in 910, the Cluny Abbey in Saône-et-Loire, France, became a monastic and spiritual capital in the 12th century with unparalleled influence in medieval Western Europe. From the second half of the 11th century, the abbey of Cluny reached its zenith: the prestige and power of the institution grew, many of the conventual buildings were expanded, and the construction of a new abbey church, known as "Cluny III" or maior ecclesia, began. It would be the largest church in Christianity for five centuries. Today, the abbey's remains reveal the past splendor of this masterpiece of Romanesque art. The author meticulously depicts the greatness, rise, and eventual demolition of Cluny. This includes the crucial abbacy of Hugues de Semur, the splendor of the Cluniac liturgy, the revival and rediscovery of the abbey through the work of K. J. Conant in the first half of the 20th century, and the 3D restorations carried out in the last decade, all of which are discussed with precision in the book's comprehensive appendices.