A cloister (from
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, "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 (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
or church, commonly against a warm southern flank, usually indicates that it is (or once was) part of a
monastic
Monasticism (; ), also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual activities. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially ...
foundation, "forming a continuous and solid architectural barrier... that effectively separates the world of the
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
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. It developed du ...
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
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
or
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...
. 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 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
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 associated with that thing or concept. For example, the word "wikt:suit, suit" may refer to a person from groups commonly wearing business attire, such ...
ic name for ''
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...
'' in languages such as German.
Cloistered clergy
Enclosed religious orders are religious orders whose members strictly separate themselves from the affairs of the external world. The term ''cloistered'' is synonymous with ''enclosed''. In the Catholic Church, enclosure is regulated by the cod ...
refers to monastic orders that strictly separate themselves from the affairs of the external world.
History of the cloister

The early medieval cloister had several antecedents: the
peristyle
In ancient Ancient Greek architecture, Greek and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture, a peristyle (; ) is a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or a courtyard. ''Tetrastoön'' () is a rare ...
court of the Greco-Roman ''
domus
In ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (: ''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 ma ...
'', the
atrium and its expanded version that served as forecourt to early Christian
basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...
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, 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 ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
() 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 (765–774), 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, in the
abbey of Saint-Riquier (790–799), took a triangular shape, with chapels at the corners, in conscious representation of the
Trinity
The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...
. A square cloister sited against the flank of the abbey church was built at
Inden (816) and the
abbey of St. Wandrille at Fontenelle (823–833). At
Fulda
Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city 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 museum and gardens in medieval style in
Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in 1930–1938.
Gallery
File:The Cloisters from Garden.jpg, The Bonnefont medieval garden at The Cloisters in Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
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 (Languedoc-Roussillon
Languedoc-Roussillon (; ; ) is a former regions of France, administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It comprised five departments o ...
, France)
File:Amalfi-Chiostro del paradiso.jpg, Chiostro del Paradiso, Amalfi Cathedral, Italy
File:Domhof, Dom, Kreuzgang Hildesheim 20171201 011.jpg, Cloister of Hildesheim Cathedral
Hildesheim Cathedral (German: '), officially the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary (German: ''Hohe Domkirche St. Mariä Himmelfahrt'') or simply St. Mary's Cathedral (German: ''Mariendom''), is a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral in the city cent ...
, Germany
File:Kreuzgang, Kloster Eberbach 20140903 1.jpg, Cloister of the former Cistercian Eberbach Abbey, Germany
File:Utrecht Pandhof 9086.jpg, Cloister of the St. Martin's Cathedral, Utrecht, Netherlands
See also
*
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 ...
Notes
References
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External links
*
The Code of Canon Law, cf canons 667 ff.*
ttps://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04060a.htm "Cloister" in the New Advent encyclopaediaNew Advent Encyclopaedia on "Religious Life"Photos and information on cloisters in France, Italy and Spain*
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{{Authority control
Church architecture
Colonnades
Christian monastic architecture
*Cloister