Salisbury Cathedral, cloister, from top of tower

A cloister (from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

or church, commonly against a warm southern flank, usually indicates that it is (or once was) part of a

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic life plays an important role ...

foundation, "forming a continuous and solid architectural barrier... that effectively separates the world of the

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s from that of the

serf Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develo ...

s and workmen, whose lives and works went forward outside and around the cloister." Cloistered (or ''claustral'') life is also another name for the monastic life of a

or nun. The English term ''enclosure'' is used in contemporary

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

church law translations to mean cloistered, and some form of the Latin parent word "claustrum" is frequently used as a

metonym Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...

ic name for ''

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whic ...

'' in languages such as German.

History of the cloister

Historically, the early medieval cloister had several antecedents: the

peristyle In ancient Greek and Roman architecture, a peristyle (; from Greek ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. Tetrastoön ( grc, τετράστῳον or τετράστοον, lit=fou ...

court of the Greco-Roman ''

domus In Ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (plural ''domūs'', genitive ''domūs'' or ''domī'') was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the m ...

'', the atrium and its expanded version that served as forecourt to early Christian

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

s, and certain semi-galleried courts attached to the flanks of early Syrian churches. Walter Horn suggests that the earliest coenobitic communities, which were established in Egypt by Saint Pachomius , did not result in cloister construction, as there were no lay serfs attached to the community of monks, and thus no need for separation within the walled community; Horn finds the earliest prototypical cloisters in some exceptional late fifth-century monastic churches in southern Syria, such as the Convent of Saints

Sergius and Bacchus Sergius (or Serge) and Bacchus were fourth-century Roman Empire, Roman Christians, Christian soldiers revered as martyrs and military saints by the Catholic Church, Catholic, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodoxy, Oriental Or ...

, at Umm-is-Surab (AD 489), and the

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

d forecourt of the convent of Id-Dêr, but nothing similar appeared in the semi-eremitic Irish monasteries' clustered roundhouses nor in the earliest Benedictine collective communities of the West. In the time of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Em ...

(reign , 768 , 814) the requirements of a separate monastic community within an extended and scattered manorial estate led to the development of a "monastery within a monastery" in the form of the locked cloister, an architectural solution allowing the monks to perform their sacred tasks apart from the distractions of laymen and servants. Horn offers as early examples Abbot Gundeland's "Altenmünster" of Lorsch abbey (765–74), as revealed in the excavations by Frederich Behn; Lorsch was adapted without substantial alteration from a Frankish nobleman's ''villa rustica'', in a tradition unbroken from late Roman times. Another early cloister, that of the abbey of Saint-Riquier (790–99), took a triangular shape, with chapels at the corners, in conscious representation of the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the ...

. A square cloister sited against the flank of the abbey church was built at Inden (816) and the abbey of St. Wandrille at Fontenelle (823–33). At

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a town in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the town hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

, a new cloister (819) was sited to the liturgical west of the church "in the Roman manner"''Vita Eigili'', the life of Abbot Eigil. familiar from the forecourt of Old St. Peter's Basilica because it would be closer to the relics. More recently, John D. Rockefeller Jr. commissioned the construction of

The Cloisters The Cloisters, also known as the Met Cloisters, is a museum in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City. The museum, situated in Fort Tryon Park, specializes in European medieval art and architecture, with a focu ...

museum and gardens in medieval style in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

in 1930-1938.

Gallery

File:The Cloisters from Garden.jpg, The Bonnefont

medieval garden A monastic garden was used by many people and for multiple purposes. Gardening was the chief source of food for households, but also encompassed orchards, cemeteries and pleasure gardens, as well as providing plants for medicinal and cultural uses ...

File:Claustro de Santo Domingo de Silos. Galería sur.jpg, The Romanesque cloister of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain File:Cloitre_prieure_Saint-Michel_de_Grandmont.jpg, Cloister of

Saint-Michel de Grandmont Priory Saint-Michel de Grandmont Priory (french: Prieuré Saint-Michel de Grandmont) is a former monastery of the Order of Grandmont in the commune of Saint-Privat, in Hérault, France. The priory is located in a wild area at the heart of an oak for ...

(

Languedoc-Roussillon Languedoc-Roussillon (; oc, Lengadòc-Rosselhon ; ca, Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania. It comprised five departments, and b ...

, France) File:Amalfi-Chiostro del paradiso.jpg, Chiostro del Paradiso,

Amalfi Cathedral Amalfi Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Amalfi; ) is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral in the Piazza del Duomo, Amalfi, Italy. It is dedicated to the Apostle Saint Andrew whose relics are kept here. Formerly the archiepiscopal seat of the Diocese ...

, Italy File:Kreuzgang, Kloster Eberbach 20140903 1.jpg, Cloister of the former Cistercian

Eberbach Abbey Eberbach Abbey (German: Kloster Eberbach) is a former Cistercian monastery in Eltville in the Rheingau, Germany. On account of its Romanesque architecture, Romanesque and Gothic (architecture), early Gothic buildings it is considered one of the mo ...

, Germany

Notes

References

* *

External links

The Code of Canon Law, cf canons 667 ff.

* ttp://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04060a.htm "Cloister" in the New Advent encyclopaedia
New Advent Encyclopaedia on "Religious Life"

Photos and information on cloisters in France, Italy and Spain
__NOTOC__ {{Authority control Church architecture Colonnades Christian monastic architecture *Cloister

History of the cloister

Gallery

See also

Notes

References

External links