Page "Cloister" Paragraph 8

One of the earliest visual representations of the claustral plan is the Carolingian plan of St. Gall, a copy made at Reichenau of a scheme worked out at the two reforming synods held at Aachen, 816 and 817.

Though cloisters served functions of quiet meditation or a study garden, the uses of the surrounding buildings in the St. Gall plan, each entered only through the covered porches, show how central the cloister was to the communal life: on the eastern side stood the calefactoria or warming room, the sole heated space, with above it the dormitory ; on the south side the refectory, with above it the vestiarium (" vestiary "); on the west side the cellar for wines and beer with above it the larder.