Note 88 — Chapter IV · Notre Dame of Paris and Other Churches of the Capital[71]

The Hôtel Cluny, which became a national museum in 1848, was built as the town house for the abbot of Burgundian Cluny, by those two art patrons, Jean de Bourbon (1456-81) and Jacques d’Amboise (1481-1514). It is one of the best works of Gothic civic architecture in France. It stands on the site of Roman baths, alleged to be those of Julian the Apostate, above which had later risen a residence of the Merovingian kings. In the time of the Carolings, Alcuin taught on this spot. The Palais des Termes was purchased for Cluny by Abbot Pierre de Chastellux (1322-43). H. Havard, éd., La France artistique et monumentale, vol. 1, p. 161, A. Darcel, on Musée Cluny; E. du Sommerard, Le palais des thermes et l’Hôtel de Cluny; Ch. Normand, l’Hôtel de Cluny (Paris, 1888).