Until the French Revolution, the cloister garden of the former Dominican convent was a place of prayer and meditation. Enclosed by four galleries decorated with Gothic arches, the garden remained unknown to the inhabitants of Colmar until the end of the 18th century. Since the Middle Ages, the convent would welcome women from the nobility. Once they had taken their vows, they were cloistered for life. The garden and the cloister were their only space for development outside the convent buildings. The former convent became the Unterlinden Museum in 1849.