Refectory

Dinner is provided year-round; supper is also served from late spring to early fall, except for Wednesdays and Fridays.

In England, the refectory is generally built on an undercroft (perhaps in an allusion to the upper room where the Last Supper reportedly took place) on the side of the cloister opposite the church.

Even relatively early refectories might have windows, but these became larger and more elaborate in the high medieval period.

The refectory at Cluny Abbey was lit through thirty-six large glazed windows.

In Eastern Orthodox monasteries, the trapeza (Greek: τραπεζαρία, refectory) is considered a sacred place, and in some cases is even constructed as a full church with an altar and iconostasis.

As well as continued use of the historic monastic meaning, the word refectory is often used in a modern context to refer to a café or cafeteria that is open to the public—including non-worshipers such as tourists—attached to a cathedral or abbey.

The term is rare at American colleges, although Brown University calls its main dining hall the Sharpe Refectory,[2] the main dining hall at Rhodes College is known as the Catherine Burrow Refectory,[3] and, in August of 2019, Villanova University chose the name 'The Refectory' for the "sophisticated-yet-casual restaurant service" (open to students and the public) to purposefully acknowledge and recognize the history of the refectory name to connote "a dining room for communal meals at academic institutions and monasteries".