The cloister, from the Latin claustrum, meaning enclosed place, is the essential inner courtyard of a monastery and a space of disengagement between the various environments of communal life. It appeared in the 5th century AD. In the Middle Ages, it was built alongside the Cathedrals, if they were connected to a monastery. Normally used by monastic orders, it consists of a quadrangular space, surrounded by porticoed corridors, open to the interior space. A place of contemplation where the “History of Salvation” was artistically represented in the sculptures of the capitals or in the wall frescoes.
