Sacredarchitecture as reality and metaphor in secularised Western societyChristian monasteriesand convents, built throughout Europe for the best part of 1,500 years, are nowat a crossroads. This study attempts to understand the sacred architecture ofmonasteries as a process of the tangible and symbolic organisation of space andtime for religious communities. Despite the weight of seemingly immutablemonastic tradition, architecture has contributed to developing specificreligious identities and played a fundamental part in the reformation ofdifferent forms of religious life according to the changing needs of society.The cloister is the focal point of this book because it is both architecture, aphysically built reality, and a metaphor for the religious life that takesplace within it. Life Inside the Cloisteralso addresses the afterlife and heritagisation of monastic architecture insecularised Western society.