cloister

1. A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle.
2. 1. A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.
   2. Life in a monastery or convent.
3. A secluded, quiet place.

1. To shut away from the world in or as if in a cloister; seclude.
2. To furnish (a building) with a cloister.

[Middle English cloistre, from Old French, alteration (influenced by cloison, partition) of clostre, from Latin claustrum, enclosed place, from claudere, to close.]

(click to enlarge)
Open arcaded cloister of Saint-Trophîme, Arles, Fr. (credit: Jean Roubier)

Four-sided enclosure surrounded by covered walkways and usually attached to a monastic or cathedral church; also, the walkways themselves. The earliest cloisters were open arcades, usually with sloping wooden roofs. This form was generally superseded in England by a range of windows lighting a vaulted ambulatory (aisle). In southern climates, the open-arcaded cloister remained standard. An especially fine example is Donato Bramante's two-story open arcade at Santa Maria della Pace, Rome (1500 – 4).

For more information on cloister, visit Britannica.com.

verb

To put into solitude: seclude, sequester, sequestrate. See include/exclude.

A covered walk surrounding a court, usually linking a church to other buildings of a monastery.

"Cloisters" redirects here. For the museum in New York City, see The Cloisters.

For other uses, see Cloister (disambiguation).

Cloister of Saint Trophimus, in Arles, France

Cloister of Abbaye de Fontenay, in Marmagne, France

A cloister (from Latin claustrum) is a covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church usually indicates that it is (or was once) part of a monastic foundation.

Cloistered (or "claustral") life is also another name for the life of a monk or nun in the enclosed religious orders; the modern English term enclosure is used in contemporary Catholic church law^[1] to mean cloistered, and cloister is sometimes used as a synonym for monastery.

In medieval times, cloisters served the primary function of quiet meditation or study gardens. The hortus conclusus or "enclosed garden" of medieval times featured the essential well at the center, from which four paths divided the space into quadrants.

The largest cloister in the world (12,000 m²/130,000 sq ft) is at the Certosa di Padula near Salerno in southern Italy.

See also

• Peristyle

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cloisters

Look up cloister in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A cloister can also be a large container used to house large amounts of liquid.

Notes

1. ^ The Code of Canon Law, Canon 667 ff. English translation copyright 1983 The Canon Law Society Trust [1]

External links

• Photographs of cloisters in Spain, Portugal and England
• The Code of Canon Law, cf canons 667 ff.
• New Advent Encyclopaedia III ff. on "Nuns, properly so called
• "Cloister" in the New Advent encyclopaedia
• New Advent Encyclopaedia on "Religious Life
• Photos and information on cloisters in France, Italy and Spain

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - kloster, klostergang, klosterliv, afsondret sted
v. tr. - sætte i kloster, spærre inde, isolere sig

Nederlands (Dutch)
klooster(leven), kruisgang, opsluiten, een kruisgang maken

Français (French)
n. - cloître
v. tr. - isoler, cloîtrer

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kloster, Kreuzgang
v. - sich in etwas einschließen, in ein Kloster bringen, (übertr.) von der Welt abschließen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (αρχιτ.) αψιδοστοιχία, καμάρες, (θρησκ.) λαύρα, μοναστήρι, μοναστικός βίος

Italiano (Italian)
convento, chiostro

Português (Portuguese)
n. - claustro (m)

Русский (Russian)
монастырь

Español (Spanish)
n. - claustro
v. tr. - enclaustrar, proveer de claustro

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kloster, klostergång (arkit.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
回廊, 修道院, 与尘世隔绝

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 回廊, 修道院
v. tr. - 與塵世隔絕

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 회랑, 종교적 은둔처, 수도원 생활
v. tr. - 수도원에 가두다, 틀어 박히다, 회랑으로 둘러 싸다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 回廊, 修道院, 修道院生活
v. - 修道院に閉じ込める, 引きこもらせる, 回廊を付ける

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) دير, ممر مسقف يحيط بفناء أو حديقه في كليه أو دير‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מנזר, סטיו, אכסדרה, בודד‬
v. tr. - ‮סגר במנזר‬

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