The Cloisters

The ornamental garden on the upper level

Ed and I had been trying to go the Cloisters for a few months, but something always came up. Generally that something was rain, and as the Cloisters are said to be situated in lovely gardens, we always considered this good reason to wait until the next opportunity. Saturday, however, dawned clear and sunny, and after brunch we headed north on the A train.

The functional garden

The Cloisters is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum that houses much of their Medieval collection. Situated in a park just as pretty as I'd heard, the surrounding area also has clear views of the (admittedly muddy) Hudson River. (I was quite impressed by the park we walked through to get to the building itself, though Ed lamented that the flowers had been much nicer a few months before.) As the  name suggests, the Cloisters is modeled after a Medieval monastery. It is made of stone from local quarries but supplemented by windows, doorways, arches, and other historic, architectural features imported from ancient European buildings (which were, I hope, slated for destruction anyway). There are two levels, each of which has access to a fetching garden: an ornamental one for flowers, and a functional one featuring the herbs, vegetables, and fruit trees that monks from the period would have grown.

Chapel, partly built from imported stone

Ed and I admired tapestries, triptychs, stained glass windows, statues, and ancient books of hours (whatever that means) and other religious verse. There was even a reconstructed chapel. The Cloisters, fittingly, features religious artifacts instead of everyday objects/art from this period; though as art was limited to religious themes during the Middle Ages, there wouldn't have been much to show even if they had been interested in presenting a more complete picture of Medieval life. Having read Pillars of the Earth somewhat recently, the trip was all the more fascinating.

Though getting to and finding the Cloisters is something of a struggle, I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for an out-of-the-box museum experience. Rather than the claustrophobic experience of most New York museum trips - no matter how large the rooms, they are always crammed with too many groups of tourists and school children talking too loudly - the Cloisters was peaceful and felt almost like a day trip to somewhere far away.