View of the Hôtel's Courtyard.

The Museum of the Middle Ages is housed in two exceptional Parisian monuments: the Gallo-Roman thermes (1st-3rd centuries) and the Cluny Abbey hotel (late 15th century). It was founded in 1843 with the collections of an art amateur fascinated by the MIddle Ages, Alexandre Du Sommerard who lived in the Hôtel de Cluny. The collections have grown over the years and today they offer a unique view of the art and history of man in Roman Gaul at the beginning of the 16th century, fifteen centuries of European art and history one location.

The ceiling of the chapel

At the beginning of the 13th century, the university moved to what was to become the "Latin Quarter". Like many others, the Cluny abbots made it a college and living quarters. The college, built over the second half of the 13th century, was located where the Sorbonne is now, and the living quarters were near the thermes. At the end of the 15th century, Jacques d'Amboise, Cluny abbot in Burgundy (1485-1510), decided to rebuild the Parisian abbey residence next to the thermes. The rapidly accomplished construction is today's oldest example of an individual inn between a court and a garden. Closed to the city by a blind crenelated wall, pierced by only a wagon gate and a door, the facility is made of up a group of residences with two wings encircling a court. Its two stories are topped by a high slate roof dotted with dormers. A balustrade with a heavy overhang hides its edge. The levels can be reached by three spiral staircases. Inside, the hotel has maintained its original layout: the size of the rooms, the façade and the chapel.

Lighting the museum 

In the heart of the Latin Quarter, the National Museum of the Middle Ages shines with new life since 28 November 2002. The Ministry of Culture and Communication / Directorate of the Museums of France, with the support of the Fondation Electricité de France, has put in lighting on the Museum building façades, especially theHotel de Cluny (late 15th century), the first Parisian hotel to be built between a courtyard and garden. Anne Bureau, lighting designer, created the arrangement.

The lighting maintains a sense of privacy in the area while making it visible in a busy, complex urban environment. The light of the flame has served as a material reference for this light concept: moving, creating shadows, it reddens as one steps away from it.

The Courtyard

A light source from behind the crenelated wall casts a warm, amber glow onto the tops of the façades. This lightingseparates the volumes by preserving true shadows. From a single point, a group of projectors illuminates all the façades (except for the crenelated wall). The top of the tower of the staircase of honour is illuminated by a flamelike light. At the Museum's entrance near the large portal, a wall sconce echoes the courtyard's light with a nocturnal presence.

The Garden

The light seems to come from the inner courtyard lawn. Small luminous "objects" within the fiber optic punctuate its edges (hot white light). Projectors set into the ground and placed between these objects produce a soft light, fading down the façades (The light tinted ambered). The dormers and turrets are illuminated by a flame-like light obtained by using a fiber optic system. An irregular disc covered with dichroic glass fragments pivots and creates random colour and movement, recalling the type of movement produced by the light of a flame. This luminous effect is directed toweards the dormers and turrets by mini-projectors placed in waterproof boxes which are also recessed into the ground.
The vaulted porch beneath the chapel is illuminated by a light of the same ambered hue as the light emanating from the grounds.
Some tree silhouettes stand out thanks to backlighting from the boulevard Saint-Germain.

This lighting project has highlighted the architecture of the renovated buildings of the National Museum of the Middle Ages.