Cluny Abbey

The abbey is located in Southern Burgundy.

What remains of the abbey of Cluny, makes it difficult to understand the importance and influence of Cluny. The beginning of the contruction date from 910 by Guillaume le Pieux, duke of Aquitaine.

The charter declared independence from the royalty, and within two hundred years, the Order of Cluny, have more than 10,000 monks and 1,450 monasteries following the order of Benoit.

The abbots of Cluny decide their own successors, power and influence grew. From 1088 to 1130, the monks build the most impressive church ever, taller than the Vatican, and marks the beginning of Burgundian Roman art.

As often happens, the culmination of power marks the decline, corruption and deviation. Saint Bernard, a young monk from Dijon, leaves the order to return to the strict obedience of Citteaux.

The war of religions and then the French Revolution destroyed the abbey in 1798, what was left is sold or dismantled.

Today there remains only few pieces to mark the evidence of what was Europe's most important religious building, but it is still a very interesting place to visit and appreciate.

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