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| 10th century Cistercian Monastery. |
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it was here in the 12th C that Gregorian chants filled the air. There were grandiose ceremonies, glorified with gold and incense, magnificent paintings and mosaics, and hundreds of Benedictine monks worshipped. They believed that praising God in such a setting was preparation for the life hereafter.
Such was the might of Cluny that it controlled the lives of multi thousands of people in affiliated monasteries throughout Christendom from Scotland to Poland. The abbey was able to start crusades, and punished offenders with excommunication.
The wealth of the monastery was unimaginable and the abbey, Cluny III which resulted from it, was the largest in the world and the pinnacle of Romanesque architecture. Through Divine Office, devotion to the dead was magnified, and all those who associated themselves, through donations, benefited from the perpetual prayers of the monks. |
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| Basilique Sacré-Coeur, Paray-le-Monial |
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| The small provincial town of Paray-le-Monial on the River Bourbince has a calm and proud air about it, with pedestrian streets which are a pleasure to explore. But the heart of the town is the Basilique Sacré-Coeur. |
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| Basilique Sainte Madeleine, Vézelay, 9th century |
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| The basilica in Vézelay is the very nucleus of this charming medieval town and it is certainly one of the treasures of Burgundy. Famous throughout history as the starting off point for the Crusades, today it is still a centre for pilgrimages to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The monastery was founded by Girart de Roussillon in the 9C and dedicated to Mary Magdalene. It was said that she was buried there and so many miracles took place at her tomb attracting many visitors that the church had to be enlarged |
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| Church of San Tirso, Oviedo |
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| Romanesque church situated in Oviedo, in Asturias, northern Spain. Dedicated to Saint Thyrsus, it was built by Tioda, the royal architect of Alfonso II of Asturias. |
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| Ponce de Minerva (1114/5 – 27 July 1175), a nobleman, courtier, governor, and general serving, at the same and different times |
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| the kingdoms of León and Castile. Originally from Occitania, he came as a young man to León (1127), where he was raised probably in close connexion to the royal family. His public career, first as a courtier and knight in the military retinue of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, began in 1140. By later historians he was implicated in the strife between Alfonso's successors, Sancho III of Castile and Ferdinand II of León, but he was generally loyal to the latter, although from 1168 to 1173 he was in voluntary exile serving Alfonso VIII of Castile. |
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