For several centuries, the biggest church in Christendom stood in this small Burgundian town, and today most of it is gone. The Abbey of Cluny was founded in 910 by William of Aquitaine, who gave the land to the monks and, unusually, freed them from any lord's control, answering only to the pope. Under a series of long-lived abbots, Cluny became the centre of a network of over a thousand monasteries across Europe and a powerhouse of medieval religion, art and politics. The third abbey church, begun in the late eleventh century, was the largest in Europe until St Peter's in Rome overtook it, with five aisles and two transepts.
The Revolution ended all that. The abbey was sold off in the 1790s, and the great church was dismantled for building stone, leaving only one arm of a transept, a tall octagonal tower and some cloister buildings. The ruins are still impressive, and a visit gives a sense of the scale of what was lost, and of how the town was built from its stones. Cluny is a quiet, golden-stoned town of about four and a half thousand people, with a handsome old centre of narrow lanes and Romanesque houses, a national stud farm and a market.
The countryside around is the Mâconnais, a land of rolling vineyards, limestone ridges and small villages with Romanesque churches, and the roads are among the most peaceful in Burgundy. The curves are gentle and the surfaces mostly good, with occasional farm traffic. Nearby Taizé, a few kilometres north, is home to an ecumenical community that draws young pilgrims from around the world. Fuel is available in Cluny, and the larger town of Mâcon is about twenty-five kilometres east, with more options.
For lunch, ask for a local dish, such as jambon persillé, ham set in parsley jelly, or a plate of Charolais beef, and wash it down with a glass of white from the Mâconnais. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, with warm light and quiet streets. In the evening, the stone glows pale gold against the dark roofs, and the great tower seems to hold up the sky.