Cloisters Museum Guide from New York Hotels
The Cloisters Museum is located in New York City's Fort Tryon Park, on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. It is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which focuses on medieval European art. The Cloisters Museum was first opened to the public on May, 1938. The architect Charles Collens designed the building to include elements from a chapter house, a 12th century Romanesque chapel, and five French cloisters, which is how the museum was named. The space includes four acres surrounding the buildings. There are authentic medieval gardens enclosed in three of the reconstructed cloisters.
The Cloisters Museum's collection includes approximately five thousand medieval European art works, particularly those from the 12th through 15th centuries. Several hundred examples of sculpture, paintings, and art were procured in France by George Grey Barnard. John D, Rockefeller, Jr. purchased the collection in 1925. In 1938, he donated the museum, architectural remnants, the adjacent park, the Barnard collection, art from his personal collection, and an endowment grant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rockefeller also purchased 65 acres of parkland near the museum and, on the other side of the Hudson, several acres hundred acres of the New Jersey Palisades to preserve the views of the museum. There are many fine hotel accommodations available on both the New York and New Jersey sides of the Hudson River.
The collection of the Cloisters Museum contains some of the most significant works of medieval art in the world, including: series of tapestries of the Nine Heroes and Hunt of the Unicorn, the Bury St. Edmunds ivory crucifix also called the Cloisters Cross or Romanesque Altar Cross, Les Belles Heures de Jean, Duc de Berry, the Medode Alterpiece by Robert Campin, the 14th century French Late Gothic Virgin and Child from Cernay-les-Reims. The collection also includes great samples of illuminated books and medieval manuscripts, ritual objects, metal work, enamels, and stained glass.
In addition to the collection, the building complex itself is a fine example of medieval artwork in its own right. It combines elements of five French medieval cloisters: Froville, Trie-en-Bigorre, Bonnefont- en-Comminges, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert, and Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa. The buildings were disassembled in France and rebuilt in New York's Fort Tryon Park in the 1930s. The plants and gardens surrounding the buildings were chosen for their historical accuracy, based on medieval artifacts and documents.
Fort Tryon Park is one of the highest elevations in Manhattan and has amazing panoramic views of the Hudson River, lower Hudson Valley, and the Palisades. It is easily accessible from nearby hotels. The park also has two playgrounds, eight miles of walking paths, promenades, wooded slopes, and terraces. Each October, over forty thousand people converge on Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters Museum for the annual Medieval Festival. The park is transformed into a medieval style market town. Historical re-enactors, vendors, and visitors dress in period costumes to enjoy medieval crafts, games, food, and drinks. There is authentic medieval music and dances, jesters, jugglers, minstrels, and magic acts. The festival concludes with a jousting tournament with knights on horseback.
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