Medieval European Pillars

Medieval European Pillars

collected from various places in France, Spain and Italy in the 11th to 15th Centuries and reassembled at the Cloisters Museum in NYC

The Chapter House section comes from Notre-Dame-De-Pontaut. The chapter house was an important daily gathering place where business and chapters of the rules was discussed. The Monastic order's and documents governing monastic religious life were also read. The chapters of the rules was discussed. The monastic religious life were also read. The chapter house was so named because the monks would sit and listen to one monk read one chapter aloud from the monastic rule book. All of the business of the monastery and group confession also took place in the chapter house.
The architecture in the chapter house is Romanesque with Gothic elements. The chapter house has thick walls and small windows which are characteristic of Romanesque architecture. However, the ceiling of the chapter house demonstrates a vaulting system that developed during the Gothic period
http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters/