Very few things in life are more sublime than a morning at the Met Cloisters

The Cloisters’ origin story is incredible, too. George Grey Bernard, a sculptor (successful, but not really wealthy), spent years in France studying at the Académie des Beaux-Arts and acquiring medieval artifacts to create his own private collection. Rockefeller Jr. then bought the collection and acquired the land to build the Cloisters, which were constructed in ~5 years.

The technical challenges in creating the Cloisters were also pretty substantial: cataloging and transporting stone structures from Europe + designing a building that could integrate pretty distinct architectural elements while *also* serving as a functional museum. 1935 -> 1938

What's remarkable is how well the Cloisters have succeeded on multiple dimensions: as architecture, cultural preservation, & as an ongoing institution. (But IMO we should return to Bernard’s original vision of dressing the guards as monks and playing monastic chants throughout)