- Description: View of a cloister in the Ancient Spanish Monastery. Cistercian monks who orginally inhabited the monastery believed their lives should resemble the life of St. Benedict as closely as possible. This included performing manual labor and field work each day. In fact, the Cistercians became the leading agriculturists of their time and can be credited for much of the farming and commercial success of western Europe during the Middle Ages. They were known for the progress and improvements of farming methods during this time as well as for technological advances in metalwork. In addition to agriculture, the monks had a successful cloth and wool trade. Even in today's world, Cistercian monks continue to produce goods needed in society such as food products or even ink jet cartridges!
- Keywords: cloister, architecture, column, stone, arch, Ancient Spanish Monastery, St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church, monastery
- TIFF File: A high resolution TIFF of Cloister (28.9 Mb) is available for download. This is a very large file suitable for printing. For most on-screen purposes, you should use the image displayed on this page instead of this TIFF.
- Source: Florida Center for Instructional Technology, Exploring Florida: Social Studies Resources
for Students and Teachers (Tampa, FL: University of South Florida, 2009)
- County: Miami-Dade
- Date of Photo: 7/31/2007
- Photographer: Roy Winkelman