WTF is a Cloister?

What is a Cloister?

A cloister is a covered walkway enclosing a courtyard in a monastery or church. Cloisters are quadrilateral, meaning they have four sides, and often have open arcades or colonnades. Cloisters were a central part of medieval monastic complexes because they connected to other buildings via doors and passageways. In addition to being functional, they also served a spiritual purpose as monks used the space for contemplation, study, exercise, and liturgical ritual.

Monastic Life

Let’s talk about monasteries for a hot second. Monasteries are residences of religious orders, typically monks or nuns. These folks take religion to a whole other level by separating themselves from society’s distractions and debauchery. Secluded in a monastery, they devote themselves to a life of prayer and worshiping God.

Monastic life is strictly regimented and disciplined. After monasteries first started popping up in the 4^th century CE, it became necessary to develop a set of rules for monks to follow. There are several rules, but two stand out: the Rule of Saint Augustine of Hippo from the end of the 4^th century and the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia from the mid-6^th century. The latter was the one that stuck, thanks to Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious, who declared every monastery must follow it in 817 CE.¹

The rules govern every aspect of monastic life—from liturgy and the role of abbots to the food monks eat and the community services they perform. Now, we still have monks doing their thing today, but Christian monasticism’s heyday was in the European Middle Ages, when most monasteries were built.

Monastic Complexes

Monasteries are large complexes with buildings arranged around a cloister. The dominant building, however, is the church. I think the reason why is pretty obvious. Monasteries vary in terms of architectural style and decoration, but most are Romanesque, Gothic, or Baroque. The arrangement of buildings also varies slightly, but the following is the general layout of most monasteries.

The Cloister

The cloister is usually south of the church, taking advantage of natural sunlight. Sometimes, however, it’s north of the church.

Cloisters consist of two parts. The first is the courtyard, or garth (garden), opening to the sky. The second is covered walkways along the courtyard’s four sides. These walkways give access to the rest of the complex.

 In many medieval monasteries, the north cloister contained desks, known as carrels, for study. Sometimes there were cupboards of books there, too.²

Buildings Around the Cloister

The cloister connects to other buildings via doorways and passageways. Many of these buildings are to the south of the church (again, sunlight!). They include:

• Sacristy – storage room.
• Chapter house – a place to discuss monastery biz, read the rule, and mete out punishments to naughty monks.
• Warming room – it has a fireplace. You get it.
• Dormitory – usually on the upper floor, where monks slept on straw mattresses.
• Refectory – dining hall. The kitchens are next door.
• Cellarium/Cellarer’s range – storage area for food, drink, and other materials, usually on the west side and 2 stories. A monk known as the cellarer was responsible for these things, hence the name.
• Abbot’s quarters – the abbot is the head honcho and gets his own digs.
• Dormitory for lay brothers – lay brothers aren’t monks, so they have their own rooms on the west side. This is common for Cistercian orders.

Medieval monks went about their daily routines and lived their lives of seclusion in the buildings around the cloister. In addition to these main structures, monasteries have a host of other buildings further away from the cloister. They include guest rooms, brewhouses, infirmaries, stables, granaries, animal sheds, and smithies (blacksmiths).

College Cloisters

Weirdly enough, cloisters aren’t confined to monasteries or churches. They also appear on college campuses, especially medieval European colleges that mimic monastic architecture. Examples include the Cloisters at Magdalen College of Oxford University, built in the 1470s-1480s, and the University of Glasgow Cloisters dating to the 19^th century. An American example is the Cloisters at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

To learn about a cloister smack-dab in the middle of Miami, Florida, see The Ancient Spanish Monastery: A Medieval Treasure in Miami.

Footnotes

1. Coomans, Life Inside the Cloister, 20. ↩︎
2. Greene, Medieval Monasteries, 6. ↩︎

Bibliography & Further Reading

*The following is an Amazon affiliate link, which means I earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no cost to you.

Coomans, Thomas. Life Inside the Cloister: Understanding Monastic Architecture: Tradition, Reformation, Adaptive Reuse. Leuven University Press, 2018.

Greene, J. Patrick. Medieval Monasteries. Continuum, 2005.