The hortus conclusus in the Middle Ages was associated with the cloister, i.e., the monastic enclosure, which appeared in Europe during the Carolingian period, while making use of architectural precedents from the distant past. It combines and highlights the characteristics of three types of enclosed garden: a hortus ludi (a garden of pleasure) a hortus catalogi (an orderly laid out unit) and a hortus contemplationis (a place of intense contemplation and introspection). The medieval hortus conclusus, a heterogeneous and deeply symbolic space, appears initially as a physical entity that facilitates access to its adjacent buildings, and consists of two parts: a bordering and multi-use stoa and a rectangular open-air courtyard, a flawless miniature of the natural environment. After the 12th century, it was transformed into a typical architectural model with permanence, loaded with theological and symbolic connotations, which – despite its manifestation as a space of confinement and isolation – for the monk who inhabited it, was, at the same time, a space of emancipation from the mortal body and regeneration of the soul.

The aim of this paper is to present, through a series of carefully selected examples, the genesis and establishment of the hortus conclusus as a typological constant of the monasteries of medieval Europe – in conjunction with the development of the leading monastic orders at the time – which combined indissolubly architectural form with deep theological symbolism.