Fraterie
The Fraterie (also Fraternei ) was the working room of the Fratres (lat., Ez .: Frater ) in the Middle Ages . This is how the "(lay) brothers" or conversations of an abbey were called who were not priests and dedicated themselves to manual or household work.
It was a group of rooms in medieval monasteries , explained here using the example of the fraterie in the Cistercian monastery Heiligenkreuz in the Vienna Woods (Lower Austria). There the second largest room of the monastery after the abbey church is called. In the extension and width of the chapter hall , the fraterie comprises 3 × 6 = eighteen square yokes , which are divided lengthways and crossways by wide rectangular belts with pointed arches. Within this room ten supports carry the weight of the groin vault . This large room is accessed via three doors, one from the cloister and two from other areas and from the outside.
The Fraterie was then divided into different workshops, such as for shoemaking , tailoring , carpentry , and others. The scriptorium , i.e. the writing room, was also located here. In this important room, the monks wrote or copied books by hand. It was the only heated room in the monastery. A staircase led to the calefactorium , the boiler room.