The Magical Cloisters, Washington Heights

The Cloisters are one of what I would call one of New York’s hidden treasures .The Cloisters are in Fort Tyron Park ,in upper Manhattan. They are part of Metropolitan Museum collection ; basically park and garden on a hill crowned with a rebuilt Monastery .It can be as enlightening for Saints as well as Sinners. It is equally inspiring for the artist as well as the spiritual.

The Cloisters are devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe, the architectural elements were assembled with both domestic and religious artifacts that date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century. The building and its cloistered gardens are treasures in themselves, effectively part of the collection housed there. The Cloisters collection comprises approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating all the way from about the ninth to the fifteenth century.

The museum and adjacent park were created by an endowment grant by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who donated the majority of his collection. The Cloisters were completed in 1938. Much of the art collection came from that of George Grey Barnard, an American sculptor and assiduous collector of medieval art, who had already established a medieval-art museum near his home in the Fort Washington neighborhood. Rockefeller purchased Barnard’s entire collection of art and all the architectural remnants as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum; The Barnard collection, was combined with a number of pieces from Rockefeller’s own collection (including the world famous Unicorn tapestries).

Daily Garden Tours are offered through the end of October, Tuesdays through Sundays at 1:00 p.m. These delightful tours provide horticultural, architectural, and historical information in the gardens of this medieval treasure. The Cloisters are located at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive Fort Tryon Park New York, New York 10040 Information: 212-923-3700

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