Cluny

Cluny , former abbey, E France, in the present Saône-et-Loire dept., founded (910) by St. Berno, a Burgundian monk and reformer. Cluny was one of the chief religious and cultural centers of Europe. The third abbey church built on the site, Cluny III (11th cent.), was designed in the mature Romanesque style. As reconstructed by Kenneth J. Conant, Cluny III was a five-aisle basilica with double transepts and five radiating chapels around the apse. Towers marked the major and minor crossings of the nave, the major transept arms, and the western facade. When completed in the 12th cent., Cluny III was the largest church in the world. The abbey was mostly destroyed during the French Revolution.

Cluny. Benedictine (Benedict) abbey in Burgundy (France), founded in 909/10. It became a centre of renewal in the Church and in monastic practice. During the 12th cent., the influence of Cluny began to decline, although the abbey itself survived until 1790.

Cluny. By the early part of C12 the great Benedictine abbey of Cluny in Burgundy (destroyed) had the largest Romanesque church in Europe, with double aisles, double transepts with apsidal chapels, an ambulatory with radiating chapels, and a huge barrel-vaulted nave. This type of plan, devised to permit more altars to be placed in chapels, proved influential. The double transept is known as the Cluniac transept.

Bibliography

Conant (1979);
Eschapasse (1963);
J. Evans (1972)