Visit the Padula Charterhouse

In the village of Padula, immersed in the setting of the Vallo di Diano, is the majestic Padula charterhouse, or San Lorenzo, a former Carthusian convent now a monumental complex and UNESCO heritage site.

The Padula Charterhouse is one of the largest in Europe, and was also the first to be built in Italy in 1300 at the behest of Thomas II of the powerful Sanseverino family.

The entire complex is very large and includes the beautiful frescoed cloister of the Foresteria, which leads to the chapel of the Dead, to what were the cells of the Carthusian monks and to the church whose monumental door is from the fourteenth century while inside it is decorated according to the taste of Neapolitan Baroque.

From the church you can access the bell rooms, the chapter and the treasure as well as the cloister of the ancient cemetery.

Of particular beauty are the Prior’s Quarters which houses eighteenth-century works and the provincial archaeological museum of western Lucania, and the spectacular large cloister where the monks used to interrupt their seclusion to walk. On the lower floor of the large cloister there are the 26 cells of the cloistered Carthusian monks.

The gardens and the park complete the beauty of the charterhouse.

To get to Certosa di Padula, take the Autostrada del Mediterraneo and exit at Padula-Buonabitacolo, then take the SS 19 to Padula where the signs will take you to the Certosa in Viale Certosa.

Alternatively, buses leave from Piazza della Concordia in Salerno and stop at Certosa di Padula.