Cloisters - Medieval Architecture for Kids

Cloisters

moissac cloister
Cloister at Moissac (ca. 1100 AD)

Cloisters were a medieval kind of building that developed out of Greek and then Roman peristyles.

A cloister is a courtyard garden inside a building. Around the sides of the courtyard there is a covered walkway, with a waist-high wall between you and the garden in the middle. On top of the waist-high wall,small columns hold up the roof of the walkway.


Cloister of Munster, in Bonn, Germany
(1170s AD, in the time of Friedrich Barbarossa). Munster means "monastery", and the town was named after this church and its cloister, where the monks lived.

To find out more about medieval architecture, check out these books from Amazon or from your local library:

Medieval architecture
Medieval Europe
Kidipede home page


Cite this page: Carr, Karen (PhD).

Kidipede - History for Kids. 2012.
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/architecture/cloister.htm