Cistercian Europe offers a lavishly illustrated journey through Europe's magnificent Cistercian abbeys. A leading expert in medieval architecture, Terryl Kinder brings these famous monasteries to life, showing not only where monks lived, worked, and prayed but also how the exquisite architecture of these buildings reflects the spiritual transformation to which their residents aspired.Dozens of famous Cistercian monasteries from across Europe have been chosen to illustrate the wide variety of architectural forms. With informed and engaging text Kinder places these monasteries squarely within the context of daily monastic life in the Middle Ages, describing the use for each abbey building, the reasons underlying the desire for simplicity, and the nature of the contemplative life they were designed to model. Maps, floor plans, and more than two hundred full-color and black-and-white photographs support the text.