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Certosa di Pavia Gra-Car (Gratiarum Chartusia = la Certosa delle Grazie) is a monastery and complex in Lombardy, northern Italy, situated near a small town of the same name in the Province of Pavia, 8 km north of Pavia. Built in 1396-1495, it was once located on the border of a large hunting park belonging to the Visconti family of Milan, of which today only scattered parts remain. It is one of the largest monasteries in Italy.

In 1866 Certosa di Pavia was declared a National Monument and sequestrated by the Italian State, although some Benedictines resided there until 1880. The monks currently living in the monastery are Cistercians admitted to it in the 1960s.

Certosa is the Italian name for a house of the cloistered monastic order of Carthusians founded by St. Bruno in 1044 at Grande Chartreuse. The Certosa is renowned for the exuberance of its architecture, in both the Gothic and Renaissance styles, and for its collection of artworks which are particularly representative of the region.

From the 9th to the 12th century the Italian kings, and several German kings, received the Iron Crown of Lombardy at Pavia, capital of the Lombard kings. In the 12th century the city became a free commune, loyal, however, to the emperor. It was the last Lombard city to fall to the Visconti (1359), who built most of the cathedral and started the construction of the Certosa di Pavia, a Carthusian monastery.

Certosa di Pavia Gra-Car (Gratiarum Chartusia = la Certosa delle Grazie) is one of the largest monasteries in Italy. All over the monastery you'll find the Gra-Car sign, designating the original name of the Charterhouse of Pavia (Gratiarum Chartusia, Charterhouse of the Graces)

Fresco and inlaid stone decoration

The Certosa represents a real art treasury, inside as

well as outside. The crypt sacristy

contains, among other treasures, a triptych the stories of the Virgin, the Magi and the Prophet Balam, in ivory and

hippopotamus' ivory, by Baldassarre degli

Embriachi, 1400-1409, donated by Gian

Galeazzo Visconti.This is the only significant remaining artifact from the

original church after a thorough loot by

Napoleonic troops at the end of the 1700s.  It's about 2 meters wide

The refectory is the place where the monks went to eat (on the one day a week they were allowed out of their cottages). They ate in silent listening the words of God. On the wall you can see the Last Supper, fresco by Ottavio Semino.

The refectory, which was the church for the first 100 years or so of the Certosa's life.  Note the screen wall which separated the monks (who had a cottage each and only came together for Sunday lunch) from the lay brothers (who had a bed in the communal dormitory).  This was a universal feature of Carthusian churches, their Cistercian counterparts and indeed all abbey churches.  You won't find any evidence of the screens in today's remaining Cistercian abbey churches, but the screens in most ex-monastic English cathedrals have the same origins - the separation of choir monks from "the rest".

There are many notable decorative sculptural works which include the carved wooden choir stalls, magnificent wooden choir carvings, designed by Bergognone

Ambrogio Bergognone furnished the designs of the figures of the virgin, saints and apostles for the choir-stalls, executed in tarsia or inlaid wood work by Bartolomeo Pola

An elegant portal, with sculptures by the Mantegazza brothers and Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, leads from the church to the Small Cloister (in Italian: Chiostro Piccolo) This has a small garden in the center.

The small cloister is one of the most beautiful place of the Certosa. In the middle it has got a nice garden. The small cloister was the heart of the monks comunity and it connected the church with the other rooms of the monastery. The statues on the pillars of the cloister are works made by Rinaldo de Stauris between 1463 and 1478. In some arches you can see the frescoes made by Daniele Crespi.

From this cloister you can see a interesting view of the left side of the church.

Some arcades of the small cloister are decorated by frescoes by Daniele Crespi, now partially ruined.

On the south side of the cloister is the lavatorium for the monks to wash their hands on the way into the refectory (on the one day a week they were allowed out of their cottages). The terracotta relief above shows "the episode of the Samaritan to the well“ More attractively, above this is a riveting two panel annunciation

The second cloister is much more spacious with the large green and the small monk cells around it. The Grand Cloister (Italian: Chiostro Grande), measures c.125x100 meters. The elegant cells of the monks open to the central garden. The arcades have columns with precious decorations in terracotta, with tondoes portraying saints, prophets and angels, alternatively in white and pink Verona marble. There were once also paintings by Vincenzo Foppa, now disappeared.

From the back, what it was theoretically all about - each of the 24 Carthusian hermit monks had their own cottage at the back of the Certosa, where they could get on with closing with God whilst the lay brothers popped the occasional meal into the serving hatch which was built into each cottage.Every one of the 24 houses of the monks has got three rooms and a garden. Near the entrance of the house there is a hole where the monk received his food during the day.

The path to the church.

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Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda

Sound: Nova Schola Gregoriana - Offertoria: Iustitiae Domini