Monasteries and beguinages
Build a monastery around a cloister garth: a cloister walk with arches, a church with a tower or ridge turret, a chapter house, a refectory and a herb garden with a well or fountain. Choose a Romanesque abbey, a Gothic monastery, a plain Cistercian monastery or a beguinage with small houses around a green. Below you can see how everything is calculated.
Point at a block for the explanation. Click a block to mark it as placed. The side view shows the section at the chosen column, Layer shows the chosen layer from above.
Build plan
Per layer
| Layer | Parts | Blocks |
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A number is the count of blocks of that part in that layer, in the colour of the part. Click a layer to see it from above.
Build tips
- A monastery was a small town of its own: with a church, dormitory, refectory, kitchen, garden and workshops.
- Glass in windows is always 1 block thick. In a thick wall the rest of the opening stays air.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the monastery as a schematic file and paste it with WorldEdit, or build it with a hologram in Litematica. Bells, doors, glass and the garden come along.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
The Rule of Benedict
Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy around 529 and wrote a rule for the life of monks. The motto ora et labora, pray and work, sums up that rule. Almost all later monasteries in Europe followed his rule or a version of it.
The Plan of Saint Gall
From the early 9th century comes a drawing on parchment of an ideal monastery: the Plan of Saint Gall. It shows a church, a cloister, a dormitory, a refectory, kitchens, workshops, an infirmary and gardens. Monasteries were laid out like this for centuries.
Cloister and garth
The cloister is a covered walk around an open courtyard. It connects the church with the chapter house, where the monks met, the dormitory and the refectory, the dining hall. In the courtyard there was often a well or fountain, and herbs grew there for the kitchen and for medicine.
The Cistercians
In 1098 the Cistercian order was founded at Cîteaux in France. They wanted to live more simply and built plain churches without tall stone towers, only with a ridge turret. Fontenay Abbey, founded in 1118, still stands almost as it was.
In the Netherlands the Cistercians founded Aduard Abbey near Groningen in 1192. Only the abbey's infirmary is left there, which is now a church.
Abbeys in the Low Countries
Egmond Abbey was founded in the 10th century and is the oldest abbey of Holland. Rolduc in Kerkrade was founded in 1104 and is one of the largest abbey buildings in the Netherlands. In Belgium lie the impressive ruins of Villers Abbey, founded in 1146 by Cistercians.
Beguinages
Beguines were women who lived a religious life together but took no monastic vows: they could leave again and kept their own property. From the 13th century they lived in beguinages, with small houses around a courtyard and their own church.
The beguinage of Bruges was founded in 1245. In the Begijnhof of Amsterdam stands the Houten Huys, one of the last two wooden houses in the city. Thirteen Flemish beguinages are together on the World Heritage List.
Did you know?
- Cistercians spoke little. At meals they used a sign language of their own.
- The Trappists, known for their beer, are a branch of the Cistercians.
- The last beguine in the world, Marcella Pattyn, died in 2013 in Kortrijk.
- The Plan of Saint Gall is drawn on five pieces of parchment sewn together.
About this tool
With this Minecraft monastery generator you build a monastery around a cloister garth: a cloister walk with round or pointed arches, a church on the north side with a square tower, a spire or a ridge turret, and ranges with the chapter house, the dormitory, the refectory and the stores. In the garth you lay out a herb garden with paths in a cross, with a well, a fountain or a tree in the middle.
You choose from a Romanesque abbey, a Gothic monastery with buttresses, a plain Cistercian monastery or a beguinage: small houses with stepped gables around a green with a little church in the middle. Eight examples help you start, such as Egmond, Rolduc, Villers, Fontenay and the beguinages of Bruges, Amsterdam and Leuven.
The tool counts all blocks, with a build plan per layer, a 3D preview and a .schem download. This way you build an abbey in Minecraft as the quiet heart of your world. For a bigger church there is Churches, for vaults Vaults.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the church on the north side?
That way the tall church casts no shadow over the cloister and the garth. The sun shines from the south into the walk, where the monks read and worked.
How big should a cloister garth be?
A garth of 11 to 19 blocks with a cloister walk 3 wide looks right. Smaller gets cramped, bigger becomes a square. An odd size gives a neat middle for the well.
What is the difference between a monastery and a beguinage?
In a monastery monks or nuns live together in one building around the cloister. In a beguinage every beguine had her own small house around a courtyard, and she took no monastic vow.
Can I build this in Bedrock?
Yes. The front view and the build plan per layer work in every version. The .schem file is for Java Edition with WorldEdit or Litematica.