Hôtel de Cluny

About this place

The Musée de Cluny, officially Musée de Cluny-Musée National du Moyen Âge, is a museum of medieval art in Paris. It is located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, bordered by square Samuel-Paty to the south, boulevard Saint-Michel to the west, boulevard Saint-Germain to the north, and rue Saint-Jacques to the east. Its building combines Roman-era thermae, the Thermes de Cluny, including a well-preserved frigidarium, and the 15th-century Hôtel de Cluny, the Parisian mansion of the Abbey of Cluny. The museum houses one of the largest collections of art from the Middle Ages, consisting of 23,000 items, of which about 2,300 are exhibited. Notice how the building presents itself to the surrounding streets or landscape, then compare its public and more intimate spaces. This helps explain how architecture expressed the position, resources and ambitions of the people who commissioned it.