CHANGE IS IN THE AIR

CLUNY MUSEUM NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE MIDDLE AGES

he Cluny Museum sheds light on the Middle Ages, a period lasting a thousand years! Opened in 1843 in the former 15-century mansion of the abbots of Cluny, the site lies next to the city’s Gallo-Roman baths dating to the 1 and 2 centuries. Although the modernization of the museum, begun in 2013, ends this spring, the-century building and into the medieval mansion house. Some 1,600 of the 24,000 works in this vast collection are presented in twenty-one rooms. They include sculptures, gold and silver plate, stained glass, enamelwork, paintings, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, weapons and armor, and everyday objects. The , a celebrated series of six tapestries, a reconstructed late-medieval church choir, stalls from the abbey of Saint-Lucien de Beauvais, and the heads of the kings of Juda from Notre Dame are among the treasures on display. Other pieces can be seen for the first time, such as the complete 40-metre-long arras depicting twenty-three scenes from the life of Saint Étienne.