The inspiration for Cluny III

 

The other week I shared the link to a video about the great third abbey church at Cluny - known today for convenience as Cluny III - in my post Cluny

Medievalists.net has a short note which summarises research which discusses the origins of the architectural scheme as a heavenly revelation to the elderly Gunzo, who had retired to the abbey from being abbot of his own community, and who was formerly believed, due to a misreading of the source text, to be the architect of Cluny III. That honour now appears to belong to the Abbot, St Hugh the Great, who presided over the community from 1049 until his death in 1109.

The article, with a link to the more detailed article upon which it is based, can be seen at A Vision from Heaven: The Dream That Inspired Cluny’s Great Church

Cluny

 

A while back I posted Cluny Re-envisioned about the great Burgundian monastic church.

Now I have found a longer and more detailed video account from Easy Documentary about the building of Cluny III that is exceptionally interesting.

It looks in particular at the technology involved and developed by the community at Cluny to create this spectacular, and innovative  monastic church.in the late eleventh and early twelfth century.

The video, which utilises digital imagery interspersed with interviews with academics can be seen at Cluny Abbey: Building the Largest Church of the Middle Age - Full Documentary

My visit in 2014 was one of most memorable of my life, my interest originating in the fact that my home town had a Cluniac priory founded in 1090. Alas there is even less above ground - there than there is at Cluny, but I could recognise a number of distinct similarities at Cluny and at Paray. This is indicative of Cluniac style and shared design - the monks there anticipated group branding. My post about that visit can be seen at Cluny

I have also posted about the great Abbots who established the monastery at The Holy Abbots of Cluny and about the destruction of the church in A crime against Humanity

Unfortunately in these older posts the photographs have not downloaded, but I think the text is still of sufficient interest without the illustrations.

Cluny Re-envisioned

The other day the Internet presented me with a video which reconstructs Cluny III, the great eleventh century church that was the ultimate expression of the great Burgundian abbey. It was, of course, largely destroyed following the suppression of the Abbey during the French Revolution. If the creation of the great church at Cluny represent one of the apogees of French life and culture, then its destruction represents the nadir that was the Revolution.

The video uses excellent graphics and AI to present the awesome scale and grandeur of what was the largest church in Western Christendom until the rebuilding of Saint Peter’s in Rome in the sixteenth century. Watching it you feel that all that is now needed is the willpower to rebuild the Abbey as an act of reparation.

The video can be seen at Reconstitution de la maior ecclesia de Cluny, la plus grande église du Moyen-âge

Coming as I do from a town that had a Cluniac priory I have always been intrigued by the Cluniacs as a community and as a liturgical and cultural influence. In 2014 I had the good fortune, indeed privilege, of visiting Cluny. If the scale of its destruction appals, then the beauty of what remains confirms not just the wickedness of its demolition, but also the holiness of its creation.