Friday 11 March 2016

Monastery Upgrades

A couple of additions to the Airfix Fort Sahara -  Monastery conversion.
A small storehouse and...
.....Garderobe (toilet) added.


A couple of People have commented that the Monastery has no church so a bit of explantion is needed;

Monastery is one of those  Terms that is commonly misinterpreted to mean a building containing several Monks.
Monasteries vary greatly in size, comprising a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds.


Not every Monastery had a church, either inside, attached or seperate to the building..a lot only had (and still have) a chapel,  a room set aside for prayer/Meditation and could be used as an oratory, ie; it could be used in the way a classic church would be with a Speaker talking to the congregation.

A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, and may also serve as an oratory.

Generally as in, not always  ;-)

Logically, Some monasterys having only a singular Monk,  would make having a Chapel, let alone a church,  a bit much to ask of  the poor lonely celibate. This all of course depends on the Interpretation of what constitutes a "church"

In the case of my "monastery" it could theoretically be that the place of contemplation/prayer is inside the main building  in a crypt for example  or entirely seperate from the main building and not in view..and that´s if I was to use it as a Monastery.