Cloître des Carmes, Romanesque monastery in Avignon, France.

The Cloître des Carmes is a monastery cloister in Avignon built of pale grey and beige ashlar. A covered gallery of pointed Gothic arches on square piers runs around an open courtyard, four large arches on the visible side, with low walls above and a tall square tower capped by an octagonal lantern and slender spire. Inside, ribbed vaults spring from carved capital bands, and the chapter house has a vault of ogives, liernes and tiercerons.

The Carmelites received a large plot outside the Portail des Infirmières in 1267, near the Vieilles Infirmeries where lepers were confined. Jean XXII had the convent and cloister enlarged and embellished between 1320 and 1326, and the work was completed under Clément VI. Houses built inside the cloister over the centuries paradoxically saved it; it was cleared and restored in the early 20th century.

This monastery now hosts theatrical performances and cultural events that bring activity into its historic corridors and courtyard. The space has become a venue where artists and audiences gather among the ancient stone architecture.

You can enter the cloister from Place des Carmes, while another historic doorway on Rue Carreterie offers an alternative access point. Wear comfortable shoes since you will walk on stone surfaces and uneven ground throughout the site.

Residential buildings constructed around this monastery over many centuries created a protective layer that prevented deterioration. This close urban neighborhood remains visible today and shapes the immediate surroundings of the cloister.