What is “a cloister”?

The story behind the answer

It is the arcaded passage that runs around a monastery’s central court (the garth), linking the church, refectory, chapter house, and dormitory. The shelter allowed monks to move, read, and meditate outdoors in all weather and provided a route for daily processions. Unlike a private prayer room or a chapel, it’s a circulation and contemplative space; unlike the walled garden, it’s the walkway that frames it.

From the Latin claustrum (“enclosure”), it became a hallmark of Romanesque and Gothic monastic design, with rhythmic arcades and carved capitals seen at places like Westminster Abbey and Mont‑Saint‑Michel. More than architecture, it expressed monastic ideals of seclusion and ordered contemplation—a calm threshold between communal work and the sacred center of the monastery.