The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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THE CHANNELED HYPOCAUST OF THE
MONKS' DORMITORY |
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| VI. |
| VI. 1. |
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 | The Plan of St. Gall |  |
THE CHANNELED HYPOCAUST OF THE
MONKS' DORMITORY
On the Plan of St. Gall only those parts of the hypocaust
are shown which lie outside the warming rooms, namely
the furnaces and the chimneys (fig. 381). We are told
nothing about the layout of the ducts and flues that distributed
the heat in the rooms themselves. To do this in the
calefactory of the monks would have been impossible, as it
would have obscured the layout of the beds in the Monk's
Dormitory, which the drafter of the Plan considered to be
of greater importance. But in the warming rooms of the
Novitiate and the Infirmary, with no story above, he could
have gone into detail. Since he chose not to do this, it then
becomes clear that in his day the construction of a hypocaust
381.A PLAN OF ST. GALL. FIRING CHAMBER & SMOKE STACK OF HYPOCAUST
MONKS' WARMING ROOM
see INDEX TO BUILDING NUMBERS OF THE PLAN VOL. I page xxv, VOL. III page 14
The hypocaust services a two-storied
structure, 40 feet wide and 85 feet long,
which contains on the ground floor the
Monks' Warming Room and on the upper
level the Dormitory. Of the heating system
itself only the firing chamber and the smoke
stack are shown. Their existence at two
opposite ends of the building postulates the
presence of a system of connecting ducts in
the subfloor which provides for draft to
distribute the heat and allows the smoke to
escape through a smoke stack placed at a
safe distance from the main structure.
no further instruction.
The furnaces are designated by the words fornax see INDEX OF BUILDING NUMBERS OF THE PLAN Only one room of the Novitiate and
(cloister walk in front of the Monks' Calefactory), caminus
ad calefaciendū (firing chamber of Monks' Calefactory),
and camin' (Novitiate); the smoke flues, by euaporatio fumi
(Monks' Calefactory) and exitus fumi (Novitiate). There
is no reason to assume that the furnaces were meant to lie
directly beneath the floor of the rooms they heated.
Nowhere else on the Plan has the architect designated
anything at the side of a building which was meant
381.B WARMING ROOM OF THE NOVITIATE
Infirmary is heated by a hypocaust. Others
of virtually identical dimensions are heated
by corner fireplaces. The choice was clearly
conditioned by the need for a room in each
of these facilities with an even and constantly
maintained temperature.
382.A PLAN OF ST. GALL: BAKING OVENS
MONKS' BAKE AND BREWHOUSE
The daily need for bread of the monastery's planned permanent inhabitants was 250 to 270 one-pound loaves. The oven in the Monks' Bakery
with a diameter of 10 feet, could produce 300 to 350 loaves in one cycle of firing and baking (see p. 259 n. 26 for more detail).
traditional. Nor can there be any doubt about the location
of the smoke flues. They are meant to be where they are
shown: at a considerable distance from the outer walls of
the buildings they served, in order to keep the smoke away
from the windows of the dormitories and to reduce the
danger of their roofs being ignited by glowing cinders.
The hypocaust is superior as a heating system to the
hearth or the corner fireplace when large rooms and many
people are involved, since it is capable of distributing the
heat evenly throughout the width and length of the building.
On the Plan of St. Gall this heating system was provided
for the rooms that served as general work and reading
areas for the monks, the novices, and the sick.[263]
Since in the Carolingian cloister, the dormitory was
usually above a room warmed in this manner, the heat
could be transmitted to it through openings in the ceiling
or through wall flues.
382.B BAKE AND BREWHOUSE FOR DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
see INDEX OF BUILDING NUMBERS OF THE PLAN VOL. I, page xxiv; VOL. III, p. 14
The oven of the House for Distinguished Guests, with a diameter of
7½ feet, could have produced easily in one cycle of firing and baking
200 to 250 one-pound loaves. The oven could therefore have
accommodated the needs of the emperor and his complete entourage
who might from time to time be expected to visit the monastery.
As I do not know of any evidence for the existence in
the Middle Ages of pillared hypocausts, I am inclined to
assume that the hypocausts of the Plan of St. Gall belonged
to the channeled type. The Carolingian hypocaust of the
monastery of Reichenau, at any rate, belonged to this type,
and this holds true also of the tenth-century hypocaust
unearthed by Seebach at Pfalz Werla (fig. 209A-C).[264]
| The Plan of St. Gall | |