The church stood at the heart of Cistercian
life and brought together communal worship, private prayer, ceremony
and ritual. The church building physically dominated the precinct
and structured the monks’ day, for the community visited
the church at least eight times daily to celebrate the Divine
Office.
Like all Cistercian churches, the abbey church at Fountains was
dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the patron of the Order.
Why did the monks construct
wooden buildings?
Stone buildings took time to construct and temporary wooden buildings were
generally constructed to provide for the community’s immediate needs.
The monks could therefore celebrate the monastic while building work in
stone was underway. Once complete, the stone buildings replaced the early
timber structures.
An exciting
and significant discovery was made at Fountains in 1979-80, when
excavations in the south transept uncovered the post
pits of a timber church beneath the site of the present ruins.
These remains belonged to the first church at Fountains, which
was built in the 1130s under the direction of Geoffrey
of Clairvaux.
This early wooden structure served the community while building
in stone was underway. It is extremely rare to find evidence
of these early wooden buildings, and this remarkable find at Fountains
has contributed greatly to our understanding of the nature and
process of building here and elsewhere. In fact, the only other
evidence for a wooden Cistercian church in England is from Bordesley Abbey,
Worcestershire, where timber from the first church was used
to cover early burials in the cemetery.(3)