page_title: Montmajour Abbey
section_title: The cloister (12th century)
hierarchical_section_title: Montmajour Abbey / The cloister (12th century)
context_page_description: Montmajour Abbey, formally the Abbey of St. Peter in Montmajour, was a fortified Benedictine monastery built between the 10th and 18th centuries on what was originally an island five kilometers north of Arles, in what is now the Bouches-du-Rhône Department, in the region of Provence in the south of France.
  The abbey complex consists of six sections:
  the hermitage, dating from the 11th century, which includes the Chapel of St. Peter;
  the cloister, built during the 12th and 13th centuries;
  the adjacent Chapel of the Holy Cross, built during the 12th century;
  the fortified Monastery of St. Peter, built during the 14th century;
  the Tower of Abbot Pons de l'Orme, dating from the same period;
  the Maurist monastery, built in the 17th century.
  The abbey is noted for its 11th–14th-century graves, carved in the rock, its subterranean crypt, and its massive unfinished church. It was an important pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages, and in the 18th century it was the site of a large Maurist monastery, now in ruin. The abbey and the landscape around it were frequently painted and drawn by Vincent van Gogh.
context_section_description: The cloister was built to the south of the church.  It was meant to reinforce the walls of the first four bays of the church, but these bays were never built.  It is rectangular, 27 meters long and 24 meters wide. In the center is a cistern which collected rainwater through pipes and channels from the roofs of the monastery buildings.
  The north gallery is the oldest part of the cloister. The traverse arches are supported by brackets decorated with carvings of real and mythological beasts, including a tarasque.  Some of the foliage-decorated columns show human heads looking through the foliage. The original sculpted capitals were repaired in the 19th century.
  At the beginning of the east gallery is the tomb of the Counts of Provence, built to hold the remains of Count Raymond Berenger IV (died 1181).  The only original Romaneque capitals are in this arcade, representing the Temptation of Christ by a small devil with flaming hair; on the other side is an acrobat performing splits, and an apple, the symbol of temptation.
  The west gallery was extensively altered by the Maurist monks in the 18th century, but the brackets have some of the most vivid carvings, showing the Mistral wind, the moon, the sun and fire, and a mythical amphibious beast devouring a man. It also has 13th century graffiti depicting sailing ships and horses.
  The south gallery is the most recent, and the carvings are the most realistic; a donkey, a monkey, a camel and an eagle are depicted on the brackets, and the columns show the Annunciation the crowning of the Virgin, and knights fighting.
  The Chapter House was connected with the east gallery- here the monks gathered each morning to hear a chapter of the Rule of St. Benedict followed by a brief teaching on it by the abbot, and also discussed the management of the abbey. It is lit by a single oculus, or round window, and connected with the nave and by a stairway to the dormitory.
  The Refectory, or dining room, connected with the south gallery through a Romanesque door decorated with a grotesque head of Tantalus,
  The dormitory of the monks occupied the entire floor over the refectory, and was connected to it by two staircases.
  The west gallery formerly connected to the cellar, bakery, bread oven, and guest rooms, which no longer exist.
caption: View of the cloister from the watchtower
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