sundial and gothic decoration in courtyard of Musée de Cluny, Paris
The Musée de Cluny is a museum in Paris housing a collection of art from the Middle Ages: the Musée National du Moyen Âge.
The museum stands on the site of a Roman baths complex (called the Thermes de Cluny). The building seen in this picture was built in the 15th-16th century as the Hôtel de Cluny for abbot Jacques d'Amboise of the Cluniac monastic order. It replaced the original Hôtel de Cluny which was built in the 14th century.
The courtyard is decorated in the Flamboyant Gothic style. The sundial and heraldic mottos seen here are part of the decoration on the octagonal tower.
The motto on the left reads "Servire Deo Regnare Est" (Latin meaning "to serve God is to reign"). The motto in the centre of the sundial reads "Nil Sine Nobis" (Latin meaning "nothing without us"). I have not been able to read the motto at the top.
The scallop shells surrounding the mottos symbolise the pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Compostela, Spain (the Camino de Santiago), the route to which began near the Hôtel de Cluny.
sundial and gothic decoration in courtyard of Musée de Cluny, Paris
The Musée de Cluny is a museum in Paris housing a collection of art from the Middle Ages: the Musée National du Moyen Âge.
The museum stands on the site of a Roman baths complex (called the Thermes de Cluny). The building seen in this picture was built in the 15th-16th century as the Hôtel de Cluny for abbot Jacques d'Amboise of the Cluniac monastic order. It replaced the original Hôtel de Cluny which was built in the 14th century.
The courtyard is decorated in the Flamboyant Gothic style. The sundial and heraldic mottos seen here are part of the decoration on the octagonal tower.
The motto on the left reads "Servire Deo Regnare Est" (Latin meaning "to serve God is to reign"). The motto in the centre of the sundial reads "Nil Sine Nobis" (Latin meaning "nothing without us"). I have not been able to read the motto at the top.
The scallop shells surrounding the mottos symbolise the pilgrimage to the shrine of St James in Compostela, Spain (the Camino de Santiago), the route to which began near the Hôtel de Cluny.