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cloister

  (kloi'stər) pronunciation
n.
  1. A covered walk with an open colonnade on one side, running along the walls of buildings that face a quadrangle.
    1. A place, especially a monastery or convent, devoted to religious seclusion.
    2. Life in a monastery or convent.
  3. A secluded, quiet place.
tr.v., -tered, -ter·ing, -ters.
  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.]


 
 
Thesaurus: cloister

verb

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

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: cloister

Open arcaded cloister of Saint-Trophîme, Arles, Fr.
(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 This form was generally superseded in England by a range of windows lighting a vaulted ambulatory (aisle).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.

 
Architecture: cloister

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

 
Archaeology Dictionary: cloister

[Co]

The central articulating feature of a monastery, usually set out in the form of a square. In the centre was a courtyard or open garth kept clear of structures, although sometimes arranged as a garden or burial ground. Around the garth was a continuous covered passage or cloister walkway. The outside wall of the walkway was sometimes an open arcade, although in later times they were often glazed. The walkway served to link and give access to all the main buildings and facilities of the complex. The church was usually on the north side of the cloister, the chapterhouse, dormitory, halls, refectory, and abbot's lodgings being arranged on the other sides. The cloister walk sometimes includes washing facilities, places for study, and wall cupboards for books and records. In Carthusian houses the individual cells occupied by members of the community open from the cloister walk.
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: cloister,
unroofed space forming part of a religious establishment and surrounded by the various buildings or by enclosing walls. Generally, it is provided on all sides with a vaulted passageway consisting of continuous colonnades or arcades opening onto a court. The cloister is a characteristic part of monastic institutions (see abbey), serving both as sheltered access to the various units of the group and for the recreation of the monks. Cloisters became an important architectural form in the 11th cent., a period marked by active monastery building all over Europe. They were not limited to monastic houses, but were built in some English colleges, as at Oxford and Eton, and in some churches, mostly in England and Spain. In N France many of the original cloisters have disappeared, but superb Romanesque cloisters remain in S France, Italy and Sicily, and Spain. In the typical examples the arches are supported by delicate columns, generally coupled, the elaborate capitals of the paired columns sometimes being interlaced. The 13th-century cloisters of two Roman churches, St. John Lateran and St. Paul's outside the Walls, are notable Romanesque examples, distinguished by twin spiral columns inlaid with rich glass mosaics. Of the Gothic period, the English cloisters are especially fine, as at Salisbury, Wells, and Westminster Abbey. The Renaissance cloisters are confined chiefly to Italy and Spain. In the New World the Spanish colonists began in the 16th cent. to build simple cloisters, generally arcaded, in Mexico, Cuba, and California.

 
Word Tutor: cloister
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A monastery or convent. Also: A covered arched passage around a court.

pronunciation The cloister surrounded the courtyard and the fountain.

 
Wikipedia: cloister
For the Princeton University eating club, see Cloister Inn.
For the horse, see Cloister (horse).
"Cloisters" redirects here. For the New York City museum, see The Cloisters.
Cloister of Saint Trophimus, in Arles, France
Enlarge
Cloister of Saint Trophimus, in Arles, France

A cloister (from Latin claustrum) is a part of cathedral, monastic and abbey architecture. A cloister consists usually of four corridors, with a courtyard or garth in the middle. It is intended to be both covered from the rain, but open to the air. The attachment of a cloister to a Cathedral church usually indicates that it is (or was once) 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 worldwide biggest cloister (12000 m²) is in the Certosa di Padula in southern Italy.

See also

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Notes

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

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

 
Translations: Translations for: Cloister

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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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
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