Cluny - Abbey of Cluny

(Local Name: St Pierre et St Paul) Around the former monastery of Cluny were fortifications of which only three of the towers (Tours des Fromages, Tour Fabry, Tour Ronde) and the Porte des Jardins still remain. The south transept with the Clocher de l'Eau Bénedite and the lower Clocher d'Horloge (clock tower) are all that remain of the abbey church. On the way to the Musée Ochier (where tickets can be purchased and the tour begins) the visitor will pass over the site where the giant abbey church Cluny III once stood. The deeper, excavated parts formed part of the ante-church. The double gateway somewhat higher up was once the main entrance to the abbey. On Place du 11 Aout stands the Facade of Pope Gelasius, heavily restored in the Gothic style shortly after 1300, with access to the enclosed monks' quarters and the 18th C cloister. North of the Facade of Gelasius, a short distance away, is the Abbot's Lodging, with the Palais de Jean de Bourbon (15th C), the Musée Ochier (history of the abbey) and the Palais de Jacques d'Amboise (16th C), now the Town Hall. The church's magnificent figural capitals, masterworks of Early Romanesque sculpture, can be seen in the Musée Lapidaire, housed in the old monastic granary, the Farinier. In the 19th C a state stud farm was set up on the land around the former abbey.

In the town itself, at some distance from the abbey, is the church of Notre-Dame, built shortly after 1100 and later remodelled in Gothic style, as well as a surprising number of Romanesque houses.