A Day Trip to Medieval Europe: The Cloisters Museum in Manhattan
The Cloisters, a branch of the Met, is a museum devoted to showcasing medieval European architecture and art. Since it's often said to be one of the best museums in Manhattan and described as "the crowning achievement of American museology", my roommates and I were very excited to finally see it!
After the ~30 minute subway ride on the A train from midtown Manhattan, we arrived at Fort Tryon Park, where the museum is located. The park itself was beautiful – teaming with flowers and plants, but not people (a plus!). We talked and took pictures as we walked alongside the Hudson River and arrived at the Cloisters castle in just ~15 minutes.
Once you pass the wrought iron gates and the countless archways, you instantly feel like you’ve been transported into medieval Europe. As you walk through the museum chambers, we saw artifacts that were kept in display cases and tapestries and paintings that hung on the walls, just like in traditional museums, but the architectural elements, like archway statues and stained glass windows, are elegantly integrated right into the building itself. The result looks like they used a giant crane lifted the original building from France and plopped it right into Manhattan – very impressive, but also feels pretty intimate.
Too bad that all the heads fell off these and many of the statues there.
Look at the details in this panting, still so well preserved!
Statues and structures were built right into the building like this gargoyle and these wooden doors.
I thought the highlights of the museum are the unicorn tapestries and the Cloister gardens. I also liked the Treasury, where they kept everyday artifacts of people who lived in those times.
The Unicorn Tapestries tell a sad story of a beautiful unicorn that gets hunted, captured and killed! Well, not sure if it’s as simple as that, but that’s how it appeared. The tapestries are massive (as you can see in the picture with Janice) and reach from floor to ceiling. It’s amazing that they were able to keep them in such great condition, just like almost everything else we saw there.
The tapestries were double me and Janice's height! If you look carefully too, it seems like unicorns drink water from their horns (or so they believed).
In a room called "The Treasury" they had small artifacts used in everyday life back then
-- I suspect they mean the stuff that royalty / ruling class people used because the combs, bowls and utensils were so ornate and beautiful!
Now onto the gardens!
They are small, but they are packed with interesting plants and beautiful flowers.
My favorite was this espaliered pear tree. I found out it’s a way of pruning trees so that they would grow 2-dimensionally – perfect for inside your medieval castle and all (read about it on
=P).
Also, this garden had mandrakes!
For those
, mandrakes were those plants with human-looking roots that screamed. In HP world, the scream of an adult mandrake could kill someone, whereas a young one would just knock someone out for a few hours. Anyway, in this garden, they looked like mini-tomatoes growing in the ground. Not very exciting, but cool that they are mandrakes!
We also took lots of pics in the garden. Such a beautiful place with a view of the river!
In summary, the trip was definitely worth it and a great way to escape the craziness of the rest of Manhattan – it only took us ~4.5-5 hours to make the entire round trip, taking our time and sitting at the garden café and walking through the entire museum. Try to get out there this summer and enjoy New York in a different way than the usual eating / drinking / shopping!
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Fort Tryon Park
99 Margaret Corbin Dr
New York, NY 10040
Hours: Tue-Sun 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Subway:
190th St (A)
**Some say that getting off at Dyckman is closer, but I heard you have to walk up a super steep hill and you don’t get to enjoy Fort Tryon Park!
Or take the M4 bus on Madison Avenue from the Met
Admission:
Admission is $20 a person, but a lot of companies get their employees free admission for their employee + 1 guest. Student tickets are $10 if you have your student ID. Full admission price of $20 isn’t too bad if you consider that it gets you into the Met on the same day too.