The abbey church of Cluny

The Benedictine abbey of Cluny begins building its third church. With five aisles and two transepts, it becomes the largest church in Christendom.

Cluny marked the high point of Romanesque and the power of the monastic orders. Most of it was demolished after the French Revolution.

The abbey of Cluny was founded in 910 by Duke William of Aquitaine, who placed it directly under the pope. It was thus free of local bishops and princes, which was unusual and gave it a strong position. The monks followed the Rule of St Benedict but placed great emphasis on a magnificent liturgy of almost unbroken prayer and chant, not least for the souls of the dead. This attracted large donations from the nobility. Under a series of long-lived and able abbots, Cluny grew into the centre of a network of hundreds of monasteries across Europe. In the 11th century the abbot of Cluny was one of the most powerful men in Christendom, and the abbey had very close ties to the papacy.

The third church was begun in 1088 under Abbot Hugh. It was largely financed with money from King Alfonso VI of León and Castile, who received tribute from the Muslim kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. According to tradition, the work was directed by the monk Gunzo and the scholar Hézelon. The church had five aisles, two transepts, an ambulatory with radiating chapels and a host of towers. The central nave was covered by a tall barrel vault with a slightly pointed profile, which was unusually early. Pope Urban II, himself formerly a monk at Cluny, consecrated the high altar in 1095 on the journey during which he also called for the First Crusade. The church was fully complete in the 1130s.

The splendour of Cluny also drew criticism. Bernard of Clairvaux, leader of the austere Cistercian order, wrote an attack in the early 12th century on the extravagance of the monasteries, with their enormous churches and fantastical sculptures that distracted the monks from prayer. The Cistercians instead built plain, light churches, and it was their architecture that reached Sweden, where monasteries such as Alvastra, Nydala and Varnhem were founded in the 12th century. Cluny’s own power declined in the late Middle Ages. After the French Revolution the abbey was sold and used as a quarry, and today only part of one transept with a tower survives. Capitals from the choir are displayed in a museum on the site.