The calefactory (also warming house) was an important room or building in a mediaeval monastery in Western Europe. It was here that a communal fire was kept so that the monks could warm themselves after long hours of study in the (unheated) cloister or other work. In the early Middle Ages this was one of the few heated rooms in the monastery - the others being the infirmary, the guest house and the kitchen - but this policy was generally relaxed, save for a few very strict orders, by the latter part of the mediaeval period when fireplaces became common throughout the claustral buildings.