This remarkable book is a comprehensive examination of the art and architecture of European monasteries, from early Carolingian examples in the eighth century to a modern structure by Le Corbusier in 1960, featuring an authoritative text and more than five hundred stunning, full-color photographs.

This unsurpassed survey offers a fresh chronicle of a largely overlooked subject and hundreds of marvelous images, many of them newly photographed, of more than 150 of the most interesting and best preserved monasteries in Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Italy―all of which are accessible to visitors. Here are unique views of the art and architecture of such treasured places as Mont St. Michel, a wondrous Benedictine sanctuary off the coast of Brittany, and the fabled pilgrimage site in Assisi founded by St. Francis.

ISBN: 9780789208293