One of the largest charterhouses in the world, with an immense cloister
In the Vallo di Diano, a wide green valley in the south of Campania, the Certosa di San Lorenzo at Padula is one of the largest monastic complexes in the world and the largest in Italy, covering about 51,000 square metres. Founded in 1306 and rebuilt in baroque style over the following centuries, it is part of the UNESCO site of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano.
The Carthusian monks lived in silence and solitude, each in his own small house with a garden around the Great Cloister, one of the largest in the world at over 12,000 square metres, surrounded by a two-storey portico of 84 columns. You visit the church with its inlaid wooden choir stalls, the chapels, the library, the vast kitchens where, according to legend, a thousand-egg omelette was prepared for Charles V, and the monumental elliptical staircase in white stone leading to the upper gallery. The Certosa also houses the archaeological museum of the Lucanian Western region.
Tip: allow at least two hours; the Vallo di Diano also includes the medieval village of Teggiano and the caves of Pertosa, a short drive away.
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