Chapter house

The chapter house - in short the chapter, sometimes chapter house - is the venue of a monastic community. Also the meeting room of the cathedral chapter and a collegiate called a chapter house. Often, the chapter house is located in the east wing of the exam and can be reached from the cloisters.

Function

In the chapter house itself ( hence the name of chapter) brings together the community of the monastery to the daily spiritual reading, for example, each a chapter of the Rule or the Church Fathers, and listen to spiritual talks of the Upper and advise affairs of the community. Important life full features of the community - such as the election of a new abbot, the inclusion of postulants and candidates, the investiture of novices or to take temporary profession - will be held in the Chapter House. In addition, is also on the settlement of external or internal disputes, the division of monastic work, advise the management of the funds, etc.. In the chapter house or in the adjacent cloister, the founders or key promoter of a monastery were often buried.

Architecture

After church and cloister, the chapter houses are among the most important and representative premises of an abbey and were equipped accordingly. While rectangular chapter houses with mostly two to four centrally positioned columns with aufruhendem ribbed vaults were prevalent on the European mainland, has emerged in the English monasteries, the traditional round or polygonal chapter houses with a central column; in rare cases, they could also be eliminated, creating a unique space action arose ( York Minster ).

While the ceiling height in the free-standing English Chapter Houses certainly could reach eight feet or more, the medieval continental chapter houses of the monasteries with ceiling heights of four to five meters were comparatively low - was above them usually still the dormitory of the monks with a direct access to the church. In the Baroque period, however, also emerged in the monasteries of Central and Southern Europe high chapter houses.

Medieval chapter houses were not heated as a rule; However, they were often adjacent to the scriptorium or calefactory, the only heated room of a monastery. In rare cases, there are still stone benches along the walls of the chapter house (eg Sénanque ), but these were - for health reasons - replaced by a wooden seating; the seat of the monastery headman was usually opposite the entrance.

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