Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/299

Rh Bk. VII. Ch. III. MONASTIC BUILDINGS. 2SZ A CHAPTER III. CIVIL ARCHITECTURE. CONTENTS. Monastic Buildings — Municipal Buildings — Castles. Monastic Buildings. S already mentioned, to most of the great churches described above there were attaclied monastic establishments on a scale commensurate with them in dignity, and ornamented in an equal degree. Most of these, too, had chapter- houses, generally square vaulted apartments, not equal in originality or magnificence with those of England, but very superior to anything found in France. The most ornamental part of these is generally the screen of triple arches by which they open on the cloister. Internally they are now generally plain, but they may have been adorned with wooden stalls and furniture, which have since disappeared. More important than these are the cloisters to which they were attached — the patio of the convent, which in such a climate as that of Spain was 728. Cloister of the Huelgas, near Burgos. (From Villa an indispensable adjunct, and much more appropriate than a coAered arcade ever was or could