The Cloisters is the Metropolitan Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, located on four acres in Fort Tryon Park. Named for the five European cloisters portions of which were incorporated into a museum building to display much the Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art.
The collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the 4th-century to the early 16th-century. It also includes pre-medieval European works created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age. Three of the cloisters feature gardens — designed according to horticultural information found in medieval treatises and poetry, garden documents, and herbals.
Much of the sculpture at The Cloisters was acquired by George Grey Barnard, an American sculptor, collector and dealer of medieval art. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. acquired Barnard's collection and, in 1925, donated it to the Museum along with the grounds and a building in which to house it. The museum is known for numerous treasured masterworks, including the famed Unicorn Tapestries.