The Monastic Cloister Garden
The medieval monastic cloister garden — the hortus conclusus — is the earliest garden form whose plans we can still read in surviving European architecture. Divided into quarters by a central well, lined by the columned walks of the cloister, planted with medicinal herbs, vegetables and a few symbolic flowers, it was the spiritual and practical heart of monastic life.
Origins in Saint Benedict's Rule
The Rule of Saint Benedict (c. 540) prescribed a self-sufficient monastic estate. The cloister garth, the herb garden, the orchard and the vegetable garden each had their place. The plan of St Gall (820) shows the model in idealised form.
Cloister Garth (centre garden)
The simplest cloister garden was a square of turf with a central well or fountain. The columned walks served as outdoor study spaces; the lawn provided drainage and reflection.
Physic and Herb Gardens
The infirmary herb garden held the medicinal plants — fennel, hyssop, rosemary, sage, lavender — that supplied the monastery hospital. Many of these gardens survive in modified form.
Mont Saint-Michel, France
The cloister of the medieval abbey is set high above the bay, with replanted herbs and a famous symbolic enclosure.
Sant'Antimo, Tuscany
The eleventh-century Cistercian abbey south of Siena, with a cloister garden replanted to medieval patterns.
Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire
The English Cistercian-Augustinian abbey, with cloister and herb garden surviving the Dissolution of the Monasteries because the buildings were converted to a house.
Cloisters Museum, New York
The reconstructed European medieval cloister with its herb garden — perhaps the most-studied medieval garden interpretation outside Europe.
Survival and revival
Many cloister gardens were lost to the Reformation in northern Europe; some have been rebuilt in the twentieth century using medieval herbals as sources, notably the Saint Gall plan-derived garden at the New Norcia abbey, Australia.
Explore on the map
All of the gardens mentioned in this article are pinned on the interactive map. Use it to plan a route, group nearby sites into a single trip, or compare gardens by style and season.