Dictionary:

Cluny

  (klū'nē, klū-nē', klü-)

A town of east-central France north-northwest of Lyon. Its abbey, the center of an influential religious order, was founded in 910. Population: 4,540.

For more information on Cluny, visit Britannica.com.

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)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Abbey founded in 909 by William the Pious, duke of Aquitaine, during the revival of Benedictine monasticism that marked the post-Viking period. Its foundation charter, which placed it under the protection of the Apostolic See, guaranteed it independence of secular and episcopal control. Under a series of outstanding abbots, monks from Cluny reformed many other monasteries and federated them to the mother house. Cluniacs devoted themselves to intercessory prayer, advocated penitential pilgrimages (the Cluniac pope Urban II launched the First Crusade), and were staunch supporters of the reforming papacy. Cluny's fortunes declined in the later 12th c.

[Jean Dunbabin]

This article is about the town and commune of Cluny. For the abbey of Cluny, see Cluny Abbey .

Coordinates: 46°26′7″N, 4°39′36″E

Commune of Cluny
Location
Coordinates	46°26′7″N, 4°39′36″E
Administration
Country	France
Region	Bourgogne
Department	Saône-et-Loire
Arrondissement	Mâcon
Canton	Cluny (chief town)
Mayor	Robert Rolland (2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	226 m–574 m
Land area¹	23.71 km²
Population² (1999)	4,376
- Density	184.56/km² (1999)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	71137/ 71250
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

The town and commune of Cluny or Clugny lies in the modern-day département of Saône-et-Loire in the région of Bourgogne, in east-central France, near Mâcon. Population (1999): 4,376.

The town grew up around the Benedictine Cluny Abbey, founded by William I of Aquitaine in A.D. 909. The monastery became the grandest, most prestigious and best endowed monastic institution in Europe. The height of Cluniac influence was from the second half of the 10th century through the early 12th.

The Cluny library was one of the most important in France and Europe during the Middle Ages. The abbey was sacked by the Huguenots in 1562 and many of the valuable manuscripts were destroyed or removed.

Coat of Arms of the city of Cluny, France (17th and 18th century)

Coat of Arms of the city of Cluny (present)

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Cluny

• Clunian Reforms
• Name of the Rose

External links

• Official website (in French)
• Adrian Fletcher’s Paradoxplace – Cluny Page – Photos

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