edited by Dave Collins

For the one who wanted to spend a pleasant and relaxing day, I suggest to visit the Chartreuse in Pavia, situated to few Kms from Pavia and an about thirty from Milan. To the Chartreuse it can also be arrived in bicycle, who arrives from Milan can leave the car in one of the so many little countries that coast along the shipping and to continue along the cycle footstep up to the monastery. The walk is very pleasant because it pedals surrounded by the nature. The Chartreuse in Pavia goes up again to the XIV century, it is one of the more important slow-Gothic monuments of the zone, its construction it was wanted by Gian Galeazzo Viscounts that it made to depart the jobs in 1396, the select position it was strategic fifty-fifty road between Pavia and Milan, then capital of the dukedom.

The founder left the Chartreuse to the Carthusian monks, which had to respect an important clause of this legacy, that foresaw the annual destination of money coming from their activity, for the Chartreuse to continue its construction. The monks construction hips completed continued to invest capitals to make more and more her beautiful, adding works of art. In 1782 the Carthusian monks were expelled by the emperor Giuseppe II, in 1784 the monastery passed to the Cistercensi monks, in 1789 to the Carmelitani monks. In 1810 it was closed. In 1843 the Carthusian monks succeeded in reentering in the monastery. Today in the monastery there are the Cistercensi monks arrived in 1968. The church with structure to three aisles was built for last, the great dimensions are due to the fact that owed becoming the dynastic mausoleum of the Dukes of Milan.

The plant is to Latin cross, uniform in three aisles with apse and transept, had been covering for times to cruise on arcs to sixth acute, it seems to take back the structure of the Cathedral in Milan, in small. To the inside there are so many works of art as the paintings of the Borgognone, as "the shovel of Sant'Ambrogio", that of "St. Siro" and the very beautiful one "Crucifixion." To the right of the transept the grave of the founder of the Chartreuse is found, Gian Galeazzo Viscounts. In the left part there is the funeral monument of Ludovico the Moor and of his wife Beatrice of Este, in origin these sculptures were inside the Milan church of Saint Maria of the Graces, in 1564, they were purchased by the monks and courses in the Chartreuse.

The architectural complex is composed of different parts all extremely important ones. The small cloister entertains to its center an elegant garden, in this part it developed the community life of their fathers, in fact on the small cloister they lean out the church, the capitular room, the library and the refectory. The great cloister, along 125 meters and breadth 100, are the part where the monks lived, during the weekdays, in absolute loneliness, devoting only to the prayer and small domestic matters. The 24 residences of the monks lean out on the garden to the center of the great cloister, every composed by three rooms and a small opening on the door, through which the monks received the meals. In the holidays the life of the monks changed, they lived in community eating together in the refectory all and begging one next to the other in the church. The Chartreuse in Pavia is certainly a very interesting place, just crossed the great arc of the entry, it is to internally feel effortless "different", lighter, a feeling that it is often given us by the spiritual places that contain among theirs "boundaries", centuries of history.