In Cluny you will can discover Abbey,founded in 910 owed its extraordinary reputation to its strict observance of the Benedictine Rule which made it answerable only to Rome. At the height of its power, the abbey commanded over ten thousand monks living in more than a thousand religious centres stretching from England to Italy and from the Iberian Peninsula to the depths of Germany.
The abbey was also well served by the strength of character and the longevity of its first six abbots, the last of whom, Hugh, a native of Semur-en-Brionnais, was instrumental in rebuilding the abbey church which was to remain the largest abbey church in Christendom until the 16C. With its five naves and a great narthex, a double transept and a choir basking in the glory of radiating chapels, a central nave thirty metres in height and even higher cupolas under the bell towers, the abbey church made a fitting setting for lavish and sumptuous liturgies. Here, the infinite beauty of the Gregorian plainsong was matched by the exquisite sculpted and painted décor.
Popes, kings and emperors were frequent visitors to a place which was synonymous with spirituality but also a force in the realm of the arts, thought and politics. Scarcely a tenth – but what a tenth! – of the church and the numerous buildings survives to remind us of the prestige of this “Light of the Middle Ages” whose flame was to die out with the advent of the Cistercians and the new mendicant orders - so much so that it fell an easy victim to demolition in the wake of the French Revolution, at a time when the notion of “historical monument” was still in its infancy. In spite of the destruction, there is still much to admire and learn from an exhaustive visit of Cluny and the exploration of the many buildings representing the Cluny style.
In Cormatin, The Castle of Cormatin was begun in 1605 and is unique in France for its exceptionally well-preserved interiors from the reign of Louis XIII (1628) with painted, sculpted and gold-leafed panelling and ceilings. Also exquisite are the tapestries, the vast stone staircase dating from 1623, the picturesque kitchen and the drawing-room decorated in 1900 for an Opera director. The 12-ha grounds feature: a fine boxwood maze, parterres of flowers, an old-style vegetable garden, an outdoor theatre and a myriad of lakes and fountains. The “allée Lamartine” landscaped walk is shaded by 130 two hundred-year-old lime trees. A tea room is open from July to September and upon reservation at other times. The castle was carefully restored in the 80’s.
