University of Virginia Library

RECONSTRUCTION

The reconstruction of the building containing the Calefactory
and the Dormitory poses no major problems (figs.
108 and 111.B). Although no Carolingian dormitory of significance
is preserved, as far as I know, we are fairly well
informed about the materials used in their construction by
contemporary chronicles. The dormitory of Fontanella
(St.-Wandrille), completely reconstructed under Abbot
Ansegis (823-833), is a good example. The Gesta Abbatum
Fontanellensium[70] tells us that its "walls were built in well-dressed
stone with joints or mortar made of lime and sand"
and that it received its light through "glass windows."
Apart from the walls the entire structure was built with
wood from the heart of oak, and roofed by tiles held in
place with iron nails.[71] The layout of this dormitory
differed distinctly from the one shown on the Plan of St.
Gall, but like the dormitory of St.-Wandrille, the building
that houses the Dormitory on the Plan of St. Gall was a
masonry structure. This can be inferred from the fact that
the cloister walk with its arched openings attached to it was
unquestionably built in masonry. With its span of 40 feet
from wall to wall, this building required a roof structure
comparable to that of the adjacent church. In the latter the
tie beams of the roof must have crossed the nave in a single
span; in the dormitory—with its live load of seventy-seven
monks on the top floor—the girders that supported the
joists of the dormitory floor are likely to have found
additional support in one or two rows of free-standing
posts.[72]

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