Cloisters Museum

The Cloisters

view from the northeast, with bell tower (2013)
Location within New York City
Established	May 10, 1938
Location	99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°51′53″N 73°55′55″W / 40.8648°N 73.9319°W / 40.8648; -73.9319Coordinates: 40°51′53″N 73°55′55″W / 40.8648°N 73.9319°W / 40.8648; -73.9319
Type	Medieval art
Collection size	1,854
Public transit access	Subway: 190th Street, 191st Street Bus: M4
Website	metmuseum.org/visit/met-cloisters

The Cloisters is a museum in Upper Manhattan, New York City specializing in European medieval architecture, sculpture and decorative arts, and is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its early collection was built up by the American sculptor, art dealer and collector George Grey Barnard, and acquired by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1925. Rockefeller extended the collection and in 1931 purchased the site at Washington Heights and contracted the design for the Cloisters building.

Its architectural and artistic works are largely from the Romanesque and Gothic periods. Its four cloisters; the Cuxa, Bonnefont, Trie and Saint-Guilhem cloisters, were sourced from French monasteries and abbeys. Between 1934 and 1939 they were excavated and reconstructed in Washington Heights, in a large project overseen by the architect Charles Collens. They are surrounded by a series of indoor chapels and rooms grouped by period and source location, and include the Romanesque, Fuentidueña, Unicorn, Spanish and Gothic rooms. The design, layout and ambiance of the building is intended to evoke in visitors a sense of the Medieval European monastic life through its distinctive architecture. The area around the buildings contains reconstructed early medieval gardens.

The design for the 66.5-acre (26.9 ha) site at Fort Tryon Park was commissioned by the philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1917, when he purchased the Billings Estate and other properties in the Fort Washington area and hired Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., son of one of the designers of Central Park, and the Olmsted Brothers firm to create a park, which he donated to New York City in 1935. As part of the overall project, Rockefeller acquired the medieval art collection of George Grey Barnard, an American sculptor and collector, who had already established a medieval-art museum near his home in Fort Washington, which he sold to the Metropolitan during one of his frequent financial crises. Barnard's collection was purchased along with a pieces from Rockefeller's holdings, including the Unicorn Tapestries. These became the foundation and core of the Cloisters collection.