Cluny, France - The model of the choir looks like a pile of wooden building bricks scattered on the floor by a child. Cubes, pyramids, cylinders and spheres - almost all the geometric forms can be found here. Cluny Abbey, for more than three centuries the longest and most imposing Christian edifice in the world, is now a picturesque set of ruins. It was once the very incarnation in stone of a desire to celebrate the glory of God. In 2010, the once mighty abbey in Burgundy region of France looks back to its foundation in the 10th century.
"Those who come here and expect to find a massive church will end up being disappointed," warns François-Xavier Verger, the abbey curator. The octagonal belltower certainly does not betray the magnificence of yore. Admittedly it is one of five former towers and steeples which once graced this house of worship. "This was an architecture of superlatives, on a colossal scale and completely at odds with its surroundings," said Verger. The church was an enormous 187 metres long - 40 metres longer than Cologne Cathedral in Germany.
The 12th century abbey was the third erected by the Cluniac Order and presented the pinnacle of Romanesque architecture before the style was superseded by gothic. The architects pulled out all the stops, endowing the abbey with four major steeples, five altars, two towers and two double aisles.
This contrasts with modest beginnings. Just 12 monks gathered at this spot in 910 AD to initiate the abbey with a pledge to adhere more literally to the rules of St Benedict. Their movement was directly answerable to the pope and the abbot elected by the monks themselves, not, as was customary, by powerful secular rulers.
Cluny was allowed to found affiliated monasteries and the reform movement spread throughout Europe until a total of 1,200 monasteries provided spiritual respite for around 20,000 monks. The aura surrounding Cluny was so powerful that the pontiff brought his entire entourage with him when he travelled to Burgundy just to stay there.
On the one hand, the building marked the zenith of the reform movement but at the same time it was a perversion. In Cluny, the time-honoured balance of "ora et labora" (praying and working) had fallen by the wayside. The monks preferred pure worship to working with their hands - something the Cistercians later corrected with their emphasis on manual labour and self-sufficiency.
"In the end the abbey fell victim of the French Revolution. It was sold and later ransacked for building materials," said Verger. "Only around a tenth of the original building was left." The most impressive vestige is the soaring southern transept. On entering it visitors feel they are stepping into a cathedral although the outlines of the ruins betray that it was only a small part of a huge sacred complex. The vault is more than 30 metres tall.
In the jubilee year of 2010 the aim will be to help visitors visualize the grandeur of Cluny in its prime. An audio visual presentation shows the building as it must have looked in the 12th century. The interior has been recreated virtually with the help of a computer simulation.
Visitors to Cluny are well-advised to also take a trip to the town of Paray-le-Monial, where the Sacre-Couer basilica is a kind of miniature version of Cluny Abbey. It is also a fine example of Cluniac architecture, even if financial constraints led to it being much smaller than was originally planned.
For those interested in ecclesiastical buildings the Cistercian abbey in Fontenay, some 200 kilometres north of Cluny, is another rewarding excursion. The Cistercian style of building suited the austere religious lifestyle of the order. The churches were plain and the pragmatic monks dug fish-ponds nearby to enable fasting days during which the eating of meat was forbidden.
Cluny has planned a whole series of events to celebrate the jubilee of the abbey which has been lovingly restored at a total cost to the French state of 17 million euros (23 million dollars). "It was high time this was done. The remains of the abbey church had not been properly renovated since their destruction after the revolution," said Bernard Aiguier who works for the local tourist board. "Until now we had an average of 100,000 visitors a day. We hope this number will increase considerably in 2010."
Festivities include an exhibition with manuscripts and sculptures from all over Europe. Taking part in the various religious services will also be members of the Taize Community, an ecumenical Christian monastic order based in Saone-et-Loire in Burgundy, not far from Cluny.
Listening to their meditative chants in the former abbey church will surely give tourists an idea of the sacred atmosphere which must have prevailed in Cluny all those centuries ago as the liturgy was read at what was once the greatest church in Christendom.
Internet: www.burgund-tourismus.com, www.cluny-tourisme.com
