cloisters
Covered convent passages
Cloisters are covered walkways surrounding a courtyard, typically in monasteries or churches, with arched openings on one side.
The architecture creates enclosed, contemplative spaces for walking and meditation.
By extension, a cloister is any place of religious seclusion: She spent her youth in the cloister.
To cloister is to seclude or shelter from the world: He cloistered himself in his study.
Monastic house of worship
- monasteryReligious seclusion dwelling
- conventReligious sisters' dwelling
- prioryLesser monastic house
- friarsMendicant religious order members
nuns · monks · cell · chapter-house · refectory · scriptorium · dormitory · chapel
Focused attention practice
- reflectionReturned light or thought
- introspectionObserving one's own mind
- solitudeState of being alone
- silenceTotal lack of sound
tranquility · prayer · spirituality · mindfulness · contemplative · devotion · retreat · withdrawal
Arched passageway or gaming hall
- colonnadeRow supporting a roof
- columnsUpright structural shafts
- vaultedCurved overhead, or leaped
- ambulatoryAble to walk
quadrangle · arches · courtyard · walkway · gallery · tracery · capitals · buttress
Monastery manuscript workshop
- manuscriptsHandwritten or typed originals
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- relicsPreserved items from antiquity
- tonsureRitual scalp shaving
liturgy · parchment · quill · breviary · psalter · herbarium · infirmary · almonry
abbey
Monastic house of worship
friars · nuns · monks · cell · chapter-house · refectory · scriptorium · dormitory · chapel · novitiate
meditation
Focused attention practice
- reflectionReturned light or thought
- introspectionObserving one's own mind
- solitudeState of being alone
silence · tranquility · prayer · spirituality · mindfulness · contemplative · devotion · retreat · withdrawal · inner-peace
arcade
Arched passageway or gaming hall
ambulatory · quadrangle · arches · courtyard · walkway · gallery · tracery · capitals · buttress · ribbed
scriptorium
Monastery manuscript workshop
- manuscriptsHandwritten or typed originals
- pilgrimageReligious journey to shrine
- relicsPreserved items from antiquity
tonsure · liturgy · parchment · quill · breviary · psalter · herbarium · infirmary · almonry
enclosed
Surrounded and sealed within
- shelteredKept safe from harm
- sequesteredRemoved from contact
- hiddenKept out of sight
protected · walled · private · removed · apart · inward · shielded · separated · hermitage · retreat
garth
Enclosed monastic courtyard
boxwood · simples · ornamental · sundial · pathways
- CatholicismVatican, cardinals, pope, Holy Communion, popes
- churchnave, pew, pews, altar, altars
- Gothicgargoyle, gothic fiction, pointed arch, gothic architecture, flying buttress
- Medievalismknights, castles, jousting, chivalry, chainmail
- old townscobblestones, narrow streets, town square, town squares, medieval streets
- monasticismabbeys, abbey, abbots, abbot, convents
cloisterspublic square
Open urban gathering place
town square · open field · piazza · agora · forum
cloistersmarketplace
Venue for commerce
bazaar · trading floor · stock exchange · shopping mall · commercial district
cloistersmarketplace
Venue for commerce
thoroughfare · hub · transit station · factory floor · carnival
- cloistered lifeSecluded religious existence
- cloistered nunsReligious women in seclusion