Cloister is a kind of a corridor with wings which constitute an enclosed square. Its internal arcades or wings are opened to the courtyard called a garth. Along the external walls of the cloister there are the most important components of the monastery. It is a link connecting the church with the monastery; it constitutes an important element of the whole. Here, the monks go to the same or separate ways. The cloister is also a place of processions as well as meditation and it acquires more like liturgical character. In some languages (e.x. Czech, English) the cloister is known by the name of the Garden of Eden.

In Tyniec this place has a long history. The cloister was already built in the inside of the first monastery, which convinces that the plan of the whole existed from the beginning. Gothic walls stand on Romanesque foundations to make aware of their size. The cloister - in accordance with a custom - was beautifully decorated. Its appearance can be reconstructed as such since one wall survived, some curved capitals and fragments of columns. The arcades leaned against the columns, opened to the garth. The ceiling was, of course, made of wood.

The works converting the look of the cloister began in XIV century but the present soaring vault is later. There is no information to state the date of the rebuilt. It was connected with an abbot Andrzej Ożga when he was in charge of the monastery. We can say for sure that at the end of XVI century the cloister was decorated with renaissance polychrome - today it is preserved only on the vault of western wing. It is easier to determine when it came into being as in 1983 an inscription was found on one of the keystones of the vault: JOHA[NNES] LOWCZOWSKI ABBAS (ruling between 1558--1568). Only small fragments of polychrome are left which extended on all wings of the cloister. The abbot himself acted as a keystone - in accordance with the 'Rule' of St. Benedict he is the keystone of the architecture, if it is possible to call like that the community of the monastery! The cloister preserved until XIX century when its southern arm was pulled down. As we may presume, the Romanesque dining room - the refectory - disappeared. At present only the foundations and fragments of the wall are left. Finally, three out of four arms of Gothic cloister preserved - one along the church and the two side ones - eastern and western. The fourth one - parallel to the church on the opposite side - is the reconstruction from 1989.

The cloister has also different functions; it reminds of the past of the abbacy. There are mementos that require further explanation.

The northern wall of the cloister, stretching along the church, makes us aware of the previous wall arrangement by means of the local stone. The severe portal and narrow passages used to play an important role. The old piety held the church door in great veneration, people prayed on their knees there, the kissed the threshold as well as performed penance for their sins. After the conversion, the entrance lost the previous meaning and in consequence was walled in and the whole wall was plastered and decorated with delicate paintings. Hence, the Romanesque remains lapsed into unconsciousness. A hundred years before, the paintings were only speculated about. The discovery of the portal was made by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz in 1943. It originated the research which developed the knowledge on the history of the monastery. The wall, that is the subject of the analysis, emerged and was tested in details. Importantly, two half-columns symmetrically spaced preserved on the right and left from the entrance. The excavations between 1961-1965 established the quality of the Romanesque church and the apse of the southern nave under the floor of the current vestibule.

The eastern wall of the cloister is also worth paying attention to as well as the adjoining rooms. There used to be a sacristy in the corner. Above the sacristy in XVIII century there was a vaulted chapel with windows towards the altar - today the windows are walled in.

Next to the sacristy there used to be a boxroom called strongroom. We can presume that in Middle Ages this was a place for a library. Today, there is only a narrow, barred window with some elements of Romanesque wall. At present the renovated room functions as a second sacristy. Above the entrance to this room a portal with Grzymał coat of arms of two Baranowski abbots from XVI century was reconstructed.  

On the eastern wall of the cloister, where a brick first appeared in XV century, we can see traces of subsequent conversions. First an arcade, opened with polychrome on both sides, was erected. There is an inscription next to (from XV century) which can not be neither read nor explained entirely - it is probably connected with burials under the chapter house.

The architecture of the chapter house, which is located behind the wall, informs about XIV and XV century. Here, after the morning prayer, a chapter - capitulum - from the 'Rule' of St. Benedict was read. This is where the name of the place as well as the chapter house originates from. Here the documents were signed, too. This is where the monks were given their everyday  duties and that is why the prayers were said before the altar placed in honour of  St. Martha, the patron of workers.

The chapter house was also distinguished by its architecture and ornaments. In Tyniec the paintings consist of a few layers, the oldest ones appear in northwestern corners: a profile of a saint in a cardinal's hat (St. Jerome's) and St. Columban's, a great Irish monk. In XV century in place of a wooden ceiling a vault with keystone was added where Abbot Ożga placed his coat of arms (Rawicz), next he walled in the arcade from the western side. In 1661 a fresco with an image of Mary with the baby Jesus. The fresco was moved on the wall between the windows. The vault was divided into four parts. Definitely the patron of each was one of the Evangelists. Today we can admire the profiles of St. Luke and St. Mark. The four main paintings of the vault represent St. John the Baptist birth, the descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Coronation of B.V.M. Some small scenes were incorporated to each part, e.x. Little Jesus playing with the cross or emblems connected with Mary (among others a ship at sea with a star in the sky - for sure an allusion to the hymn Ave, Maris Stella - Welcome, the Star of the Sea). The theme represented on the vault is a kind of compendium of information about Mary. On the northern wall the latest layer is the scene of  St. Benedict's death.

In the chapter house the morning mass was finished by recalling the dead. In Tyniec this tradition was cultivated scrupulously. The necrology included the names of the founders, benefactors and the brothers. The mourning liturgy was in accordance with the calendar recalling the anniversaries. Under the chapter house there is a crypt for the monks. There is an inscription on the entrance:

MEMORARE NOVISSIMA

QUOD SUM ERITIS

MIHI HODIE TIBI CRAS

(Remember about the ultimate matters. Who I am - you will be; what I will face today, you will face tomorrow)

The eastern arm of the cloister coincides with the oldest one, perhaps with the monastery architecture from XI century; it was the time when the building of the monastery started - this is proved by the excavations when the oldest foundations and the relics of the first buildings were dug up.

The southern - reconstructed arm of the cloister - is a place of a few memorials. The latest one commemorates the Benedictines return to Tyniec in 1939. There are the names and the surnames of the superiors - the founders: an abbot Theodore Nève of the Zevenkerken Abbey in Belgium, Father Prior Carol van Oost who brought the first monks to Tyniec. The tablet, with the relevant inscription, was placed during the fiftieth anniversary of the events. Since that time a new history of Tyniec begun.

A tablet occupies the place of honour in the middle of the wall with a long description of the foundation from

1044.

D.O.M.

VIATOR

QUEM HIC VIDES STANTEM AD MERIDIEM

SOLEM EXISTIMA

MIECISLAO ET RIXA REGIBUS

POLONIAE EXORTUM AD SOLIUM

CASIMIRUM

CASU MIRO

UNUM AD REGNUM BIS NATUM

SEMEL EX UTERQ(U)E RELIGIONE SECUNDO

UNA IN MAJESTATE

DUPLICI REDIMITUM CORONA

BENEDICTINA ET REGALI

QUI

BENEDICTO IX SUM. PONT. DISPENSANTE

ORDINIS S. BENEDICTI FILIUS

PATRIUM POSTULATUS AD THRONU(M)

ARCHICAENOBIUM HOC TYNECENSE

MUNIFICENTIA SINGVLARI

PRO SPIRITUALIBUS DIACONUS

PRO SCEPTRO SUO SUBIECTIS REX

PRO BENEDICTINIS CONFRATER

FUNDAVIT

ANNO DOMINI 1044

(In honour of Good God Almighty. You, passer-by, as you can see, faced towards the southern sun, this is Casimir. The son of the royal couple - Mieczysław and Rycheza, he was born to be the Polish king. Surprisingly, he was born twice - his mother gave birth to him and then he was born to join the monastery. He was rewarded with the Benedictine crown [this is monk's tonsure] and royal crown. The pope Benedict IX excused him from the monastery and ascended to the throne. He was a deacon for the clerics, the king for the people and a brother for the benedictines - he founded  Tyniec abbacy in 1044)

Right next to it there is a tablet commemorating saintly members of the congregation. This is the following inscription:

D.O.M.

AETERNAE MEMORIAE

VENERABILIUM

ANDREAE NOSEK ABBATIS

MSCISLAI PRIORIS

VOLDIMIRI

DUCIS OSVEC[IMENSIS] ET ZATOR[IENSIS] FILII

BENEDISTI[INORUM] TYNCENSIUM QVI

VITAE FORMA DATI

NOBIS SUNT HIC TUMULATI

VIATOR

MORIBUS HOS SEQVERE SI CHRISTU(M)
QVAERIS HABERE,

FORTUNATUS TANTIS ANTECESS(ORIBVS)
CONVENTUS

TYNECENSIS POSUIT A(NNO) D(OMINI) 1759

(In honour of Good God Almighty. In memory of venerable abbot Andrzej Nosek [recte - Ożga], the prior Mścisław, [finally the legendary] Włodzimierz, the prince's son of Oświęcim and Zator, who were the examples for our life and are buried here. You passer-by, if you want to know Christ, follow their steps. This [tablet] has been laid down by the congregation of Tyniec in Anno Domini 1759, honored by such predecessors)

The word Fortunatus attracts our attention - the name of the prior Albrychowicz who probably reworded the analysed text and founded the tablet.

There is one more table left on the wall - made of black marble from the same year, the same climate so undoubtedly we can also attribute it to Albrychowicz the known panegyrist.

D.O.M.

PERILL[USTRISSIMO] REVERENDISSIMO D[OMI]NO

THEODORO ZIELONACKI
ABBATI TROCEN[SI] O.S.B.

MULTORU[M] ANNOR[UM] ET

MERIT[ORUM]

PRIORI ET CUSTODI TYNECEN[SI]

VITA RELIGIOSA MORV[M] SVA VITATE

UTROQVE ECCLESIAE CULTU

COMMENDATO POSITUM

PRO QVO DICENTES SUNT CUNCTI
PRAEGREDIENTES

HUIC SUPERAM LUCE[M] DA DEIS ET REQUIEM

AMEN ANNO D[OMI]NI 1759

(In honour of Good God Almighty. The monument for the most reverend Teodor Zielonacki, the abbot of St. Benedict's monastery, an experienced prior and curator of Tyniec on account of his monastic life, mildness of morals and care for the Church. Let every passer-by say a prayer: God give him the light from the heights and repose. Amen. Anno Domini 1759)

This time the person is historical. Teodor Zielonacki made his mark in Tyniec in XVIII century.

Until recently  there used to be a rococo wooden statue in southwestern corner of the cloister. It represented the queen Judyta, Władysław Herman's wife, the benefactor. The inscription on this matter is invisible nowadays: ' The queen Judyta donated her goods to the monks of Tyniec'. She was mentioned during the anniversaries as one of the founders of the abbacy. 

On the southern side of the cloister, above the entrance to the monastery rooms, a block of stone with the coats of arms of  Półkozice the Abbacy and Rawicz was placed made at the end of XV century (previously it was a part of the decoration of the church tower).