Cluny, located NW of Mâcon, is known for its famous Benedictine abbey St-Pierre et St-Paul, which was founded in 910 by Duke William the Pious of Aquitaine. Already under its first abbots the monastary of Cluny became the center of a powerful ecclesiastical reform movement which spread to about 2000 monastaries in Western Europe. Its abbots were considered as powerful as monarchs or popes, and four of them - Odon, Mayeul, Odilon and Hugues - are venerated as saints.The present abbey was built in 1089 and was a magnificent structure as the models show below. Unfortunately the majority of the abbey was destroyed during the French Revolution.
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