– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

In the heart of the French region of

Burgundy, the small town of Clooney

holds a secret. Once a gigantic church

stood here, now barely onetenth of the

original remains.

In its day, it was the largest abbey in

the world.

[Music]

Its pillars rose more than 30 m.

Its nave spans 60 m longer than

Notradamand de Pari.

300 windows illuminated the building.

It was called Mayor Ecclesia, Latin for

the largest church.

>> It was an absolutely incredible

technical feat. They managed to build

something that was simply oversized for

the era.

Built by 11th century monks in less than

70 years, it would remain Western

Christianity's largest church for five

centuries, defying all architectural

standards and declared a second Rome.

>> It looked directly to the papacy in Rome

for direction.

But after the French Revolution, this

peerless abbey was abandoned, destroyed,

and sold stone by stone.

>> The site completely deviated from the

concept of an abbey.

>> For nearly a century, archaeologists and

historians have searched for traces of

the abbey in the walls of the city.

They've discovered that the builders of

this church had mastered extraordinary

techniques.

And so they must have wanted to build

very high from from the from the word

go. You don't build vast foundations if

you're going to have a small church with

nothing on top of them.

How did the monks meet the challenge of

building such a tall and stately abbey

almost a thousand years ago? Where did

they find the materials? How did they

transport them?

[Music]

Now the greatest experts on the Clooney

Abbey, meticulous computerenerated

reconstruction and 20 years of hard work

will reveal the lost secrets of the

Mayor Ecclesia.

[Music]

Clooney Abbey was located in a remote

valley in the heart of Burgundy in

southeastern France.

Within the walls of the lost religious

city once stood the largest abbey ever

built in the Middle Ages.

More than 90% destroyed after the French

Revolution. Only a few vestigages

remained which were swallowed up by the

city that developed over the centuries.

[Music]

How could one calculate the dimensions

of the original church? What did it look

like? Today, only the large southern

transep remains with its octagonal

tower, the last vestage that proves the

once colossal size of the building.

>> Because it's the only bit of Clooney

that's left, one forgets just how

gigantic it is.

And the transcept that survives is, you

know, twice the size of the average

church, isn't it? In in its own right,

and it's only one of two transcepts.

The dimensions of the tower were unheard

of for a building from the Middle Ages.

It was more than 60 m high and

overlooked the valley.

The interior vaults measured up to 30 m.

[Music]

This tower awakened the curiosity of

historians to find the plans of the

missing abbey.

Only one existed, preciously preserved.

It dates from 1700 and was made by an

anonymous person. The precision of the

drawing is the only trace of what this

extraordinary church was like.

>> This is the oldest plan of the abbey.

the earliest testimony to its existence

in Clooney.

It was a huge monastery.

To give you an idea, from the end of the

11th to the 12th century, it housed

approximately 300 monks.

At the height of its existence, Mosame

Michelle had only 80 monks. So, it was

truly colossal in size.

[Music]

The abbey was a veritable city that

stretched over 15 hectares, almost half

the size of today's Vatican with

buildings that were oversized for the

time.

Some are still visible in the city, such

as the Miller

and the inn.

Yet, the highlight of the map that

intrigued the researchers was the size

of the aashial church in the middle.

When you look at the scale of the large

aial church, you see that it was

colossal.

>> It was 187 m long. To put it into proper

perspective, it was 60 m longer than

Notradam de Par.

The church was bigger than Notraam de

Pari, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome,

Chartra Cathedral, and the Basilica of

Sandini.

In size, it beat any other church in the

Middle Ages.

Its unrivaled length held double aisles,

11 spans, two transcepts, a small and

large with a width of 75 m. A chancel

and an apps composed of multitudes of

radiating chapels named Apicidol.

To understand the size of this

monumental church, we must go back to

the time of its creation, which began

with a key asset.

[Music]

The location on the site itself is

linked to a donation made in 1910 by the

Duke of Akiten.

He gave a plot of land, an old villa to

a handful of monks.

But he had the distinction of placing

this community under the direct

responsibility of Rome.

>> It was directly

subservient or looked directly to the

papacy in Rome for direction. So it

considered itself in a sense I suppose

to be a second row.

Its direct attachment to Rome gave it a

privileged status. But the abbey became

even more important a few years after

its creation thanks to a specific event.

They brought relics to Clooney first of

St. Peter and St. Paul and then relics

in numbers such as Clooney competed with

St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and gave

rise to a very large veneration of

relics.

One could come to venerate the relics of

St. Peter or at least pray around the

abbey. It was a bit like making a

pilgrimage to Rome. I'm slightly

exaggerating but not much. There was a

very strong connection to Rome.

>> The first church called Clooney 1

quickly became too small.

The monks built what was named Clooney 2

and little larger. But 20 years later,

this church was deemed to be too narrow.

They then built Clooney 3, the Mayo

Elesia or biggest church.

The idea was to build a church that

could perhaps accommodate up to 1,000

monks or at least a very large number of

them that were either on site or passing

through. It was absolutely vital to have

something more imposing that was really

in the image of this second Rome.

They wanted the best, the greatest, the

most beautiful, and the brightest to

manifest their faith in God, but also to

show his strength and his power. And

that the greatest, be they emperors or

even the pope, should do that with

Clooney.

At one point, Rome could not do without

the Clooney Abbey. The abbott of Clooney

was an essential person in medieval

Europe of the 11th and 12th centuries.

Abbert

Hugh of Seamur launched the construction

of Clooney 3, the Mayo Ecclesia in 1080.

His goal was to build the largest church

ever. But the monks were immediately

faced with a problem, the location.

How could a huge church be built on a

cramped site at the junction of two

rivers and on the steep slope of a

valley?

The site where Clooney was built wasn't

very good for construction. In fact, it

was somewhat of a flooded basin. To the

east, there was the Grown River that

flooded often, creating silt. The soil

was very unstable up to the level we're

at now, where natural terrain began.

>> The heart of the church had to face east

towards Jerusalem. So the monks had to

level the hillside to create a base by

removing thousands of cubic meters of

earth.

These were considerable earth works.

They had a bit of difficulty since they

were perpendicular to the slope of the

hill and consequently were forced to

carry out a number of works to try to

get it leveled.

There were layers of land that were not

very homogeneous

and the eastern parts were still quite

wet.

That's why they built extremely strong

foundations.

>> You need solid foundations to build

high. The Clooney monks understood that

very well.

The chapel of Jean de Bourbon at the

extreme southeast of the aial church was

redesigned in the 16th century.

Excavations are underway to find the

ancient foundations of the abbey led by

Fabis Orion, an archaeologist at the

center of medieval studies.

What's quite extraordinary is that we're

in the foundations. This is extremely

well-designed and well-built masonry.

And yet it wasn't visible but in the

ground buried in the foundation

trenches.

It's a very high quality construction.

The limestone blocks are perfectly cut.

Their thickness varies from 6 to 18 cm

and they're connected by mortar.

The foundations were deep because the

builders looked for hard ground to use

as a base.

Here

they were really trying to make deep

solid foundations in order to bear the

weight of the whole structure.

The depth of the foundations followed

the slope of the valley to reach the

hard rock up to 4 m deep in certain

places.

They were also extremely thick. On the

western part of the transcept, the

foundation wall was 5 m wide.

From the start, um, the foundations were

colossal. They're big and they're very

deep on a site which is not easy to

build on. And so they must have wanted

to build very high from from the from

the word go. You don't build vast

foundations if you're going to have a

small church with nothing on top of

them.

>> To stabilize the foundations, the monks

went even further.

Each wall and each pillar base were

connected by 3.5 m thick masonry.

All the structures were firmly anchored

to each other.

These walls were brought together

including those under the arches.

So from one wall to another or from one

pillar to another were foundations that

followed each other.

It's called a sill plate, which is a

kind of grid.

>> This grid stabilizing the soil was a way

of connecting the support points that

these pillars represented.

>> Once it was done, you could build

whatever walls you wanted.

>> If the ground moved, the entire building

moved, but it wouldn't fracture. There

lies the genius behind the construction.

Engineers from National

did a simulation and realized that these

foundations had enormous purpose.

Had they not been there, the monument

wouldn't have stood.

At the beginning of the 20th century, an

archaeologist also took a keen interest

in the foundations of the lost church.

American Kenneth John Conand would

change the fate of the abbey.

when he arrived everything was under

grass. There was no sign of of

foundations or anything like that. The

only thing that survived was the the

great transcept and the little eastern

transcept and the chapel bon Jean de

Borbong and so on that little group of

buildings but apart from that there

wasn't anything really visible.

>> The site had completely taken over the

area. It was a little like the Camair

temples where vegetation invades the

temples. In Clooney, the city took over

the area completely surrounding the

abbey.

[Music]

The site had completely deviated from

the concept of an abbey.

So, Conant worked for nearly 40 years to

find not only the plan, but to

reconstruct the lost volumes of this

exceptional building.

Using rare artist drawings from the 18th

century showing the abbey and its

church, Kenneth John Conand had only one

obsession to find the exact dimensions

of the building.

To do so, he analyzed the foundations,

their thickness, and their composition.

Finally drawing hundreds of plans which

revealed the abbey in volume for the

first time.

[Music]

Conant was the one who rediscovered the

Clooney Abbey. He was the first to have

proposed reconstitutions of the aial

church in all its original and later

splendor.

[Music]

Through his research, Conan discovered

the entire size of the building.

The nave of the church was composed of a

double span punctuated by 18 monumental

pillars.

[Music]

It also featured a transcept itself

followed by a smaller one.

Finally, there was the chancel with 10

pillars that formed an ambulatory.

Three floors of windows bathed the

church in light

and the vaults were 30 m high.

[Music]

In the 11th century, no other church

matched it in height and dimensions. It

was the largest, highest, and brightest.

But how did the monks manage to create

such a masterpiece using the techniques

of the Middle Ages?

The 10th century was the golden age of

Romanesque arts. Churches were modest in

size, not exceeding 20 m tall with thick

walls and small windows, far from what

the monks wished to achieve.

>> The churches of the 11th century were

darker, usually because their windows

were cut into the walls of the tribunes.

The naves were rarely lit directly.

The churches were rather squat.

The monks of Clooney decided to raise

the walls

to build very high vaults and to add

many windows.

[Music]

At the time, the vaults had a

semic-ircular arched shape typical of

Romanesque art. The semicircle supported

the weight. The diameter was therefore

equal to the width of the vault. The

height of the vault was the radius.

To increase the height, the nave had to

be widened. But the bigger it got, the

more the forces at hand weakened the

structure.

To build higher, they had to find a

solution other than the semic-ircular

arch.

They were driven by the necessity of

solving this technological problem to

guarantee the stability of the building.

At one point, the genius idea of using

Gothic arches must have come into the

mind of the site manager as a way to

solve this issue.

The Gothic arch is two half circles with

centers located at the extremities of

the vault.

They intersect and this forms a Gothic

arch.

The width is no longer related to the

diameter as it is for the semic-ircular

arch. It can reach 2/3 of the arch.

It's therefore possible to build higher

than with a semic-ircular arch.

>> The Gothic arch existed before Clooney.

It wasn't conceived specifically for

Cooney, but it was used because of its

interesting characteristics.

In the Romanesque style, all arches were

systematically semic-ircular.

For Clooney, however, they could not be

used for reasons of stability.

At that time, it was quite innovative

because it would allow the weight to be

better distributed over fully volted

parts.

With semic-ircular arches, the weight is

evenly distributed horizontally and

vertically. This requires thick walls to

prevent them from spreading under

pressure.

By breaking the arch into two half

circles, the horizontal component of the

weight is reduced and carried over to

the vertical component.

As a result, the walls can be thinner

and higher without the risk of

spreading.

From the moment these walls could be

higher in elevation, they could also be

cut more easily to create bay windows.

It was these openings that allow light

into all the vessels that made up the

nave and the aisles of Clooney 3.

[Music]

It's clear that behind what appears to

us to be essentially new forms, there

was above all technological research

at a level we would deem quite advanced

today.

But Gothic arches were not enough to

flood the nave with light while

maintaining the stability of the

building. It is this church plan that

allowed the architects to grasp the

level of mastery with which the Clooney

monks understood the balance of forces.

This is a cross-section of the large

nave of Clooney 3.

It was composed of a central aisle and a

double aisle.

The forces were redistributed by

staggering the aisles.

This shared distribution of lateral

force was achieved through the stability

of the outer walls with powerful

buttresses.

So it was a massive structure but a

particularly wellbalanced one.

There was a genuine effort made to

understand these forces.

These people displayed an exceptional

level of conceptualization.

There was a clear architectural and

engineering approach

typical of Romanes. The central naves

were buttressed with aisles. Here the

size of the building is such that the

monks added a third aisle maintained by

powerful outer buttresses.

The monks pushed Romanes art to its

limits.

The three floors of successive Gothic

arch vaults rose to 29.5 m, 17 m, and 10

m, allowing for a perfect balancing of

forces.

It was then possible to cut rows of

windows on each floor.

These windows represented a 45% void

compared to the walls.

[Music]

There were several rows of overlaid

windows which obviously allowed them to

create an unrivaled luminosity inside.

This is to evoke another spirituality

that of the divine that floods the place

of contemplation with his light.

[Music]

At that time, people didn't dare open

walls under vaults like this, especially

in a building as important as the Mayor

Elesia. So, this was very important and

very bold, and it foreshadowed what

Gothic architecture would later become.

>> In Gothic art, the structure carries the

building, not the walls. In Kuni, the

monks pushed the thought process of

force distribution to an extreme in

order to exceed the heights allowed in

Romanesque art right down to details

essential to balance.

This is notably the case with the

position of the pillars.

This narrowing, very subtle at each

level, allowed the springing point of

the vaults to be brought into the design

of the building and thus offer more

stability.

And so the oblique lateral strain was

better contained in the design of the

building.

The building was a balance between force

applied vertically and horizontally.

Butresses, arches, and the position of

pillars. Everything was present to allow

the monks to build a gigantic church.

[Music]

However, because the building was also

subject to torsional movement, the monks

paid attention to the slabs that

supported the top floor.

>> There was a whole system of staples that

actually locked the inner bands, the

last band at the top of the transcept.

So, all the parts were actually sealed

by these metal staples.

These were large staples 50 cm in length

by 2 cm in width and across.

The building was so large that they had

to take every precaution and resort to

any technique imaginable to achieve

stability and avoid deformation.

[Music]

But that wasn't enough. The monks were

still concerned about the pressure put

on the walls by the vault. So they

placed large iron bars along the entire

length of the nave.

Across the transcept there were these

bars of metal which held the thing taut.

These huge tier horn affair had to hold

the walls from from falling outwards.

You know

>> if they did it it was because there was

a need. So it's clear that the building

called for this kind of buttress. The

project was rather bold anyway.

Everyone in the middle ages knew Clooney

and the builders of the great cathedrals

knew it too.

They knew what the advantages or

disadvantages of various strategies

were.

That's why the Gothic arch implemented

in Clooney was reproduced in the great

cathedrals. The use of iron with staples

was used in Gothic architecture and so

on.

The abbey was splendid, grandiose, and

impressive.

The first stone was laid on October

25th, 1088. The monks began with the

southern arm of the great transep, the

only part that remains today. The site

then moved south to north and then to

the west.

[Music]

On the walls of the church, you could

see a multitude of holes left by the

workers scaffolding. These are called

putlog holes.

>> Putlog holes are small orififices that

were made into the wall at the time of

construction. That's how they could

stack the beams, trays, scaffolding, and

so on.

Their location provides information on

the evolution of the construction site,

notably the part that survived the

destruction, the large southern

transcept of the abbey.

We can see that the putlog holes which

are aligned horizontally on the first

two spans are not on the third.

There is a difference of 30 to 40 cm.

This is a sign that construction

stopped. What happened?

If we look at the third span in more

detail, the three highest windows are

not aligned with those just below.

Moreover, the band that marks the floor

suddenly stops and does not continue on

the third span.

All of these clues help us understand

what happened on the site at that time.

[Music]

There was a change of purpose. At first,

they set out to build a vaulted church

with 20 m under the vaults in order for

it to be lit directly.

But at this stage of construction, in

the middle of the transcept, they

decided to build 10 m higher. Plans were

changed. You can clearly see it in the

transcept.

[Music]

The first dome was 20 m high, the second

30 m, and the third was supposed to have

been 20 m high.

But the monks decided to go higher. By

placing this third dome 30 m high, they

were forced to shift the windows to the

north to leave room for the support

pillar.

[Music]

In their dream of gigantism, raw

material was essential. And in that

respect, the location of the abbey was

perfect.

>> For materials, it was perfect.

Everything needed was on site, both in

abundance and quality. That's

exceptional. There were limestone

quaries.

If you cook limestone, you get lime,

which is the binder needed to build.

They had sand from the grown river and

large quantities of clay to make the

floors, tiles, etc.

>> Not to mention, the valley was

completely covered with forests.

Near the construction site, less than 3

km away, were a multitude of quaries

with an abundance of stones.

[Music]

The farthest one was 18 km away. It's

the last still visible today.

The monks extracted white limestone

called piselite limestone.

We're here at the library. This is one

of the rare sources of soft stones in

the region. We know that stone was

extracted for sculpture.

The other quaries were composed of hard

stones used for construction.

There were three types of limestone with

different physical characteristics,

micrite, oyte and krenoidal.

There was also aros, a kind of

sandstone.

>> The programs were deliberately very bold

in terms of budget and technique. So

they looked for the best stone possible,

large sheets of bedrock that could make

big walls.

>> The most beautiful stones were cut

directly on site and placed so that they

were visible on the exterior.

>> The walls were made with two facades

that were relatively similar with rubble

stone cut more or less finely depending

on the area.

And in the middle was a mixture of

coarse mortar with all types of stone

waste to create a stable uniform block.

The wider it was, the higher it could

go.

>> It was an absolutely incredible

technical feat. They managed to build

something that was simply oversized for

the era with fairly simple means as the

walls were made with basic rubble.

That's how buildings had been

constructed since antiquity.

>> From these quaries, the monks extracted

a single stone 6 m long, 3 m high, and

45 cm thick. The tempanum.

It was placed at the entrance of the

large gate to impress visitors.

It was an extraordinary block in terms

of size considering the supply of the

local quaries.

>> Then it had to be moved which was also a

technical feat.

>> The idea was to use intelligence rather

than strength.

To carry the stone, the monks installed

a ramp that compensated for the slope of

the valley over 10 m in elevation.

The tempanum was then rolled on logs to

the large gate.

It was then lifted up using a hoisting

device called a jack, which reduced the

weight of the stone by a factor of 100

using the principle of traction levers.

The 28 ton stone was then placed on its

base.

>> This huge temp was lifted vertically on

these jams and was then sculpted.

They didn't want to take the risk of

creating that sculpture of Christ in his

glory before setting it up and digging

into the mass of the tempenum. Because

of the 45 cm thickness, they dug up to

40 cm to give depth to the sculpture.

[Music]

>> Christ was surrounded by four angels

whose remains found on the site show a

quality of sculpture that was unmatched

at the time.

In certain areas of the tempanum, only 5

cm of stone thickness remained.

>> From that moment on, an immense gate was

built that measured 14 m wide at the

base and 20 m high.

An architeure was placed at the top to

complete the composition.

ed as a genuine triumphal arch.

>> This was really in line with the idea

that Clooney would be restoring the

ancient world and Rome.

[Music]

>> The quality of the sculpture was just

breathtaking. When you came in through

the west door under that lintil that you

know and all the sculpture of the west

door and you looked down the whole

length of the church, what you saw was

the enormous Christ in the apps painted.

[Music]

There were more than,200 capitals

inside. which entails a gigantic number

of highquality decorations.

These were large capitals, 80 cm wide by

80 cm high. It was a colossal building,

the scale of which was quite remarkable.

>> Only eight capitals were found almost

intact. They adorned the pillars of the

ambulatory in the chancel.

Here

again the sculpture was carved with a

lot of depth so as to play with shadow

and light.

The majority of the capitals had

Corinthian themes. They were modeled on

Corinthian capitals. The reference to

antiquity was tremendous.

In antiquity you had temples with

columns and Corinthian capitals.

In the Clooney 3, they replicated the

colonade and borrowed Roman marble

columns that they trimmed and installed

around the chancel.

So, Clooney 3 was representative of

ancient Rome in all its splendor.

Above all, the monks wanted monumental

architecture.

With that 2 m diameter, the vestigages

of the pillars that punctuated the nave

bore witness to this desire.

The choice of the stones that composed

them wasn't the result of chance.

They didn't put just any stone in any

place. The base of the first pillars was

made of micrite limestone. With

moisture, the open transcept and the

destruction these stones degraded. Next

was a mixture of aros and limestone. Why

did they use micrite limestone which is

not particularly known for being of good

quality? Well, that stone is interesting

because it's very resistant to

compression. What was above it was

extremely heavy. the pillars, the

vaults, the dome all weighed on the

pillars. So they chose this stone to

support the vertical load.

>> Likewise, when the composition of the

walls of the still existent transcept is

analyzed, each stone has its function.

At the base, micrite limestone to

support the weight. In the middle,

strong and rigid sandstone. and at the

top soft limestone for the sculpted

capitals.

[Music]

At this point, 30 years had passed since

the first construction of the great

church Lamayo Ecclesia. The Clooney

Order was at the height of its power.

The Abbotts were in permanent contact

with the emperors, sovereigns, leading

figures of the world, and the papacy.

The Abbey couldn't be overlooked.

Gradually, it created what we called an

empire. They called it a religious

order, but it truly was an empire.

Today, for a company or a firm, it would

be called an empire. It was an abbey

that had subsidiaries, so to speak, and

throughout Europe, from England to

Italy, from Spain to Poland. It had an

enormous influence, spiritual of course,

but also temporal.

[Music]

More than 800 monasteries were created

and directly attached to the abbey. The

order was based on the rule of St.

Benedict, a return to spiritual life and

prayer. It resonated with world leaders.

The Abbotts also put into place an

entire strategy around the worship of

the dead, the feast of the dead, and the

need to pray for the dead. They

multiplied the altars, held more and

more masses for the souls of the

deceased and in each mass obviously the

coffers of the abbey increased.

Clooney had vast wealth at this time and

certain great sponsors

and it's clearly was the kings of of

Leyon and Castile. uh their their great

gold treasury which they the tribute

which which came to Clooney annually

from the northwest of Spain uh meant

that the coffers of Clooney were

bursting

and uh this incredibly ambitious

uh church project was was undertaken.

Clooney had colossal means. It was a

building that was erected very quickly.

>> Perhaps too quickly because in 11:25 an

event changed the structure of the

building.

>> In 11:25, the vault of the nave

allegedly collapsed.

>> One of the vaults most likely collapsed.

We don't know where.

>> It could be the great nave. It could be

an aisle. Could just be a little aisle

or a chapel or something. You know, it's

not it's not at all clear. Obviously,

the monks were devastated. Their dream

of greatness and prestige was ruined.

>> The monks had to review their plans and

determine what happened. How could a

building that had been so well thought

out be fragile? What was the mistake?

>> They didn't anticipate the fact that the

nave was very long.

The entire length of the nave had been

built using the same vault and the same

walls. But given that length, there was

a certain flexibility to it.

For example, if you take a pencil that's

5 cm long and you try to break it,

that's hard to do. But with a 30 cm

pencil, all it takes is a little snap

and you break it. So, what did they do

in the Middle Ages? They constantly

monitored the vaults.

The monks placed steep and narrow

staircases in the thick walls of the

abbey approximately 40 m in height.

From there, the monks could control the

structure. They might have noticed that

the vaults were fragile despite all of

their precautions.

What we do know is that they reinforce

the vault with walls called buttress

walls

in order to transfer some of the weight

and stabilize the vault of the central

aisle.

And to avoid having massive walls that

would change the perspective a little,

an arch was hollowed out in them.

The arches thus counterbalanced the

forces applied by the vaults onto the

walls. These arches would later emerge

in Gothic churches as flying buttresses.

>> Clooney 3 was really the transitional

building between typical classic

Romanesque art and Gothic art that would

flourish a few decades later.

It's traditionally believed that Gothic

art was developed in the Parisian region

and indeed most of the great monuments

of this period are concentrated there.

But the genius of the techniques that

allowed Gothic art to blossom really

took place in Clooney around 11:30.

In 1095, Pope Innocent II came to

consecrate the church. It wasn't

entirely finished. The last stone wasn't

laid until 11:30,

but as soon as it was completed, the

monks decided to build a 38 m long narex

that would end with two large towers

called barabans, culminating at 17 1/2

m.

There was a problem. The hill had to be

dug once again to integrate the

extension.

>> They wanted the narthx to extend into

the hill. topography.

>> The topography of the site and the

choice of location made by the monks at

the end of construction led to the fact

that one entered the church by going

down the steps, thus bowing to the saint

of saints represented by the magnificent

chancel of Clooney 3.

It was in Clooney that the legendary

Narthx was created, an anti-urch located

right in the front of the nave called

Galile because it refers to a very

specific liturgy pertaining to Easter

and the observance of Easter.

[Music]

>> Easter celebrates the resurrection of

Jesus. In all its grander, the front of

the Nate symbolized the passage to

eternal life.

[Music]

The aial church was finally finished. It

had risen from the earth in less than 70

years.

It imposed its power by its gigantism

dominating the center of the abbey.

This religious city was surrounded by

walls.

Its ramparts rose to more than 8 m and

were made of defensive towers and gates.

[Music]

The walls of the abbey weren't there

simply for the prestige. They were also

meant to protect in case of an attack

and there were several. And then you had

the city around the abbey along with the

walls of the city. So the abbey was a

small town within the town of Clooney.

When the abbey expanded, the

fortifications were enlarged as well.

And gradually by expanding,

it brought more and more people to these

sites.

Pilgrims had to be accommodated. So, a

hotel was built.

Visiting guests needed accommodating,

too.

We tend to forget that an abbey isn't

just a church, a closter, and a few

buildings. It's an entire economic and

cultural complex.

Very quickly the question of water

arose. How could it be provided to the

community? The monks resorted to two

rivers located on either side of the

abbey. The Medas and the Grun.

But this required making adjustments.

The medasau is a small stream that

originated west of Clooney and was

channeled under the city of Clooney. It

was used for the hydraulics of the

monastery and part of the city.

The water from the source of this stream

was transported into the monastery as

drinking water.

It was brought to the fountain of the

cloister and from there water was

distributed to the kitchen, to other

fountains and perhaps to the baths.

The monks used gravity. The slope went

from west to east and the midass flowed

naturally into the gon. The fountain of

the closter that received the water was

the highest in the abbey.

Once filled, it supplied the various

locations.

Using the drop in elevation, the monks

increased the pressure and made the

water gush.

The midas also served as sewer water. A

parallel network was to be created

evacuating sewage.

There were sewer systems that were

several hundred meters long.

Running water was injected into them to

carry away the waste.

There were flushing systems upstream of

the monastic latrines

which were large longitudinal buildings.

In these upstream systems, the valves

were opened and the fecal matter was

sent further downstream.

Very quickly, the abbey expanded towards

the GR and the monks diverted the course

of the river. They set up water

retention ponds upstream and downstream

of the river by building 5 m high and

370 m long dams capable of holding 200

hectares of water. In doing so, they

created a diverted canal that ran along

the valley and irrigated the entire

abbey. It was one of the most complex

hydraulic systems ever built in the

Middle Ages.

>> Clooney took a natural water system and

changed it into a completely artificial

network.

There was no natural water passing

through the city or the abbey at all.

[Music]

The monks set up 187 mills along the Gun

and inside the abbey which brought them

a colossal income. It was one of the

greatest senori of the Middle Ages.

In the middle ages, mastering water was

of course a sign of power and

technological knowhow.

The monks of Clooney were no exception.

Beyond the domestic dimension, there's a

spiritual dimension to water that helped

demonstrate the richness of the abbey.

The Clooney Abbey prospered for five

centuries thanks to a succession of

powerful amb.

The abbey started to decline in the 15th

century. In the 16th century, it was no

longer attached to Rome and lost a large

part of its income. In 1789, the French

Revolution brought about the end of the

abbey with its sale in 1798.

>> The Bashel church was sold in lots to

material traders and developers

who stone after stone patiently

dismantled the entire building.

In this huge church that was a

masterpiece of architecture, they only

saw a pile of stones that would allow

them to get richer.

>> The town encroached on a large part of

the abbey, namely the land located close

to the village.

As a result, there is currently an

interweaving between the current town

and the historic buildings of the abbey.

The site completely deviated from the

concept of an abbey.

>> Strolling through the city, one can see

a multitude of medieval houses, some of

which have pieces of the great abbey in

their walls.

In the masonry of the houses and in

private owned gardens, we often see

elements of a sculpture, a piece of

capital, a fragment of a portal or a

statueette that came from this great

church.

Over the centuries, the abbey was

transformed. A new closter was built on

the site of the old one in the 18th

century,

as well as desar.

The gardens were redesigned.

[Music]

But Clooney's greater basial church

lives on, scattered around the city.

This architectural prowess in gigantism

still radiates through its vestigages.

[Music]

It's true that relatively little

remains, but there is enough to get an

idea of what the abbey was like if one

takes the time to look and really study.

As a site, Clooney has to be earned. It

isn't just handed to you on a silver

platter. You have to dig. And when

you're given the opportunity to do so,

you'll find it's wonderful.

[Music]

Every detail immerses you in the

glorious past of this prestigious order.

It's thanks to the power and fervor of

the abbotts that the abbey was able to

compete with the greatest buildings to

the point of being compared to Rome.

By wanting to create bigger and higher,

these monk builders advance the

architecture of the Middle Ages. Today,

all you have to do is let yourself be

carried by these premises to understand

the scale of this project and its

challenges.

Heat. Heat.

[Music]

You're going

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
heart /hɑːt/ A1	noun - the organ in the chest that pumps blood
region /ˈriːdʒən/ A2	noun - a specific area or part of a country
small /smɔːl/ A1	adjective - of a size that is less than normal or usual
town /taʊn/ A1	noun - a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city
secret /ˈsiːkrɪt/ A2	noun - something that is kept hidden or unknown
gigantic /dʒaɪˈɡæntɪk/ B1	adjective - very large in size or scale
church /tʃɜːrtʃ/ A1	noun - a building for Christian religious services
original /əˈrɪdʒənl/ A2	adjective - first or earliest form of something
remain /rɪˈmeɪn/ A2	verb - to continue to exist
largest /ˈlɑːrdʒɪst/ A2	adjective - biggest in size
abbey /ˈæbi/ B1	noun - a monastery used by monks or nuns
world /wɜːrld/ A1	noun - the earth, together with all of its countries and peoples
pillar /ˈpɪlər/ B1	noun - a tall vertical structure used as a support
rise /raɪz/ A2	verb - to move upward
nave /neɪv/ B2	noun - the central part of a church building
span /spæn/ B1	verb - to stretch or extend over
window /ˈwɪndoʊ/ A1	noun - an opening in a wall or roof for light and air
illuminate /ɪˈluːmɪneɪt/ B2	verb - to light up or brighten
Latin /ˈlætɪn/ B1	noun - an ancient language of the Romans
incredible /ɪnˈkrɛdəbl/ B1	adjective - difficult to believe; extraordinary