What is served in a refectory?
A refractory may serve buffet-style meals. In medieval monasteries, the refectory was sometimes referred to as a frater, a Latin word that means brother. Frater house or fratery were other terms used for the place where the brothers gathered for their simple meals. The kitchen and a buttery or dairy would be close by.
What was a refectory in a medieval monastery?
refectory : dining room in a monastery. Other parts of monastery: chapter house, cloister, scriptorium.
What is refectory give an example?
Definition of refectory : a dining hall (as in a monastery or college) Example Sentences Phrases Containing refectory Learn More About refectory.
What’s another word for refectory?
Refectory synonyms In this page you can discover 7 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for refectory, like: dining-hall, , cafeteria, reading-room, undercroft, foyer and cloister.
Where is the refectory in a monastery?
In the monastic buildings and castles of the military orders large room serving as a dining room. Refectories were most often placed near the cloisters, in the wing most distant from the church (usually the south or north wing).
What is the purpose of a refectory in a monastery?
After the abbey church, the second largest building in a monastery was the refectory, or frater. It was here that the monks gathered for their meals.
Where did the word refectory come from?
The word refectory comes from the Latin word reficere which means “to restore, renew.” A meal together is a great way of restoring unity to a group.
Where did the monks store their food and other materials?
A monastic kitchen fed many people and needed a lot of fuel. The was usually stored in a service yard just outside the kitchen. The kitchen was also served by a pantry (where bread was stored), a buttery (were the wine was kept) and a scullery (where utensils and kitchen equipment were kept).
Were medieval monks obese?
Monks were the couch potatoes of their time Obesity was unusual in medieval times, a period when many people suffered from poverty, malnutrition and deadly plagues. “[The monks’] diet has been classified as ‘a form of high class diet’.
Was there fat people in the Middle Ages?
As much as we may want to make excess pudginess a “malady of modernity” brought on by an excess of sugar and sedentary lifestyles, there were overweight and, yes, even obese people in the Middle Ages.
What did the rich eat in Medieval times?
Food for the wealthy Aristocratic estates provided the wealthy with freshly killed meat and river fish, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables. Cooked dishes were heavily flavoured with valuable spices such as caraway, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger and pepper.