Day Trip to Cluny

Jon, Zoe, Ellie, and I went to Cluny last Sunday. We hoped to see the Cluny abbey, which was built beginning in the year 910. It was once the most powerful Benedictine abbey in Europe and was also the world's largest Christian church until the construction of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Unfortunately, much of the abbey is now gone. According to my guidebook, "During the Revolution, angry mobs set out to sack the building but lost interest (it took them a week just to burn the archives), and the abbey was instead sold to a property developer, who carved it up and auctioned off the stone for building material." We did however, see a medieval library of books from as early as the 10th century. They were very cool to see-- the looked to be mostly historical texts, including some histories of the abbey, many written in Latin.

This is what was left of the church.

Here is Jon, doing his own human sacrifice.
Parts of the cloister were still there, though. It was enormous.

A few carvings were left too. This one is meant to represent the first 4 tones of a Gregorian chant.

Cluny has several towers. This is the 'Tour des Fromages,' or the tower of cheeses, which was once used to ripen cheeses.























We climbed up the Tour des Fromages. Here was the view of Cluny town.


Here I am on the tower.

Zoe, Jon, and Ellie.