In formal terms a cloister is a quadrangle enclosed by a roofed or vaulted passageway. It is the heart of the monastery, usually placed in the sunniest location and providing the connection, physical and psychological, between the church and the more domestic areas such as the refectory and chapter house.
At The Cloisters the three cloister gardens – Cuxa, Bonnefont, and Trie – still serve several of the same primary purposes that they did when built for the monks in the Romanesque and Gothic periods: meditation, conversation, and simple enjoyment. At the same time, each has its own very distinct attributes.
The Romanesque Cuxa Cloister, originally much larger when part of the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa in the northeast Pyrenees, was built in the 12th century. The surrounding columns and the octagonal fountain at the center, providing the welcome sound of splashing water, are of a warmly glowing mottled pink-and-white marble found in Languedoc. The capitals are particularly interesting, ranging from simple block forms to fabulous bestiaries of manticores, harpies, and griffins.
The garden here, with its crossed paths forming quadrants of rich green lawn, has four symmetrical perennial borders at the interior edges of the lawn along the
stone paths. It is a typical example of a medieval garden, although it does contain both medieval and modern species in order to achieve an effective display of flowering plants.
During the period of spring to fall, it is filled with color, beginning with yellow-blossomed cornelian cherry and delicate snowdrops followed by columbine, pinks to sages, asters, and rue. In winter, the open arcades are glazed and walkways filled with pots of aloe, citrus, acanthus, bay, and jasmine.
The Gothic Bonnefont Cloister, from the Cistercian abbey of Bonnefont-en-Comminges in southwest France and neighboring monasteries, dates from around 1300. The gray-white marble capitals in this cloister are more severe than those of the Cuxa Cloister, befitting the austere Cistercian style of architecture. An expansive view across the Hudson River to the Palisades is still amazingly unspoiled. It will always remain so: John D. Rockefeller, Jr., donated this stretch of the Palisades to the State of New Jersey to forever protect it from development.
The garden, filled with more than 250 species of herbs used in the Middle Ages, is rich in color and—above all—fragrance. (The medieval garden was designed to appeal to all five senses.)
The plants are labeled and generally grouped in beds according to use—culinary, aromatic, magic, medicinal, and plants used by medieval artists. The beds are arranged symmetrically around a 15th-century Venetian wellhead whose rim is deeply grooved from the ropes drawing the buckets up and over its sides.
The last cloister, the Gothic Trie Cloister, is the domain of the unicorn. In spring,
every plant in the garden—more than fifty species—is found in the famous Unicorn Tapestries series. Summer to fall, other medieval species are added to the garden for added color and texture.
This cloister's carvings, late 15th century and from Trie-en-Bigorre and neighboring foundations in southwest France, are, like the tapestries, full of narrative interest. Biblical scenes and saints' legends combine with grotesques and coats of arms. They are very late Gothic, the last exuberant flowering of the Middle Ages. On one capital God creates the sun, moon, and stars. On another the angel stays the hand of Abraham. On yet a third a wild man accosts a monster from hell.
Of The Cloisters gardens, this is the most informal. Again as in the tapestries, the garden is designed as a luxurious jumble of such well-loved plants as pomegranate,
periwinkle, daisy and corn marigold, wild strawberry and sweet violets, wallflowers and yellow iris.
How to Reach The Cloisters
Subway: Take the A train to 190th Street, exit by elevator and walk through the park or take No. 4 bus (Fort Tryon Park—The Cloisters).
Bus: No. 4 Madison Avenue (Fort Tryon Park—The Cloisters).
Car: Henry Hudson Parkway north to first exit after George Washington Bridge. Free parking available. For further information, call (212) 923-3700.
# # #
May 26, 2006
Press resources