A Day at the Cloisters

With friends in town from California, we took the opportunity to visit one of our favorite New York landmarks – The Cloisters.  Built around various rooms and chapels using original architectural elements such as lintels and corbels, columns and portals, this branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art “provides a harmonious context” for the exhibition of European medieval works of art.  One can’t help but marvel at the vast collection ranging from ceramics, metalwork and enamels, to painting, sculpture, stained glass and tapestries.

Our favorite areas are, of course, the cloisters, the open-air courtyards filled with medieval and modern species of garden plants that provide color and scent from early spring to late fall.  Here the summer flowers are in bloom, as are the medicinal and cooking herbs, and the trees like the quince, pear and pomegranate are bearing fruit. Don’t miss the views from The Bonnefont Cloister over tree tops to the Hudson River and if time allows, a walk through wild flower fields of Fort Tryon Park is a treat.

Photos from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Barbara Bell and yours truly