the king of France, gained the power to appoint the abbot of Cluny from Pope Leo X. Over the next 250 years, the abbey never regained its power or position within European Christianity. Seen as an example of the excesses of the Ancien Régime, the monastic buildings and most of the church were destroyed in the French Revolution. Its extensive library and archives were burned in 1793 and the church was given up to plundering. The abbey's estate was sold in 1798 for 2,140,000 francs. Over the next twenty years the Abbey's immense walls were quarried for stone that was used in rebuilding the town. Although it was the largest church in Christendom until the completion of Rome's St. Peter's Basilica in the early 17th century, little remains of the original buildings. In total the surviving parts amount to about 10% of the original floor space of Cluny III. These include the southern transept and its bell-tower, and the lower parts of the two west front towers. In 1928, the site was excavated by the American archaeologist Kenneth J. Conant with the backing of the Medieval Academy of America. Ruined bases of columns convey the size of the former church and monastery. Since 1901 it has been a center of the École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers (ENSAM), an elite school of engineering. See also Bible de Souvigny Abbot of Cluny Basilica of Paray-le-Monial Berno of Cluny Le jongleur de Notre-Dame History of medieval Arabic and Western European domes Notes Further reading Bainton, Roland H. (1962). The Medieval Church. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company Inc. Bishko, Charles Julian. Spanish and Portuguese Monastic History 600–1300, VIII. "Liturgical Intercession at Cluny For the King-Emperors of Leon": Bernard's Consuetudines in historical context. Bouchard, Constance Brittain. (2009) Sword, Miter, and Cloister: Nobility and the church in Burgundy, 980–1198 (Cornell UP) Boucheron, Patrick, et al., eds. (2019) France in the World: A New Global History (2019) pp 120–125. Conant, Kenneth J. (1975) "Cluny Studies, 1968–1975." Speculum 50.3 (1975): 383–390. Conant, Kenneth John. (1970) "Mediaeval Academy Excavations at Cluny, X." Speculum 45.1 (1970): 1–35. Cowdrey, H. E. J. (1970). The Cluniacs and the Gregorian Reform. Evans, Joan (1968). Monastic Life at Cluny 910–1157. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lawrence, C. H. (1984). Medieval Monasticism. Marquardt, Janet T. (2007). From Martyr to Monument: The Abbey of Cluny as Cultural Patrimony. Mullins, Edwin (2006). In Search of Cluny: God's