Recognized in 1998 the Certosa di San Lorenzo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, also known as Certosa di Padula it is certainly one of the most beautiful places in the province of Salerno.
The wonderful Charterhouse of San Lorenzo, makes the Municipality of Padula the main destination of religious tourism in Campania as well as being among the most evocative monuments of the Italian artistic heritage.
The architectural style is almost predominantly Baroque, in fact there are very few surviving traces of the fourteenth century. The complex counts approx 350 rooms and occupies an area of 51.500 m² of which 15.000 engaged only by the cloister, the largest in the world. The Charterhouse of San Lorenzo, thanks to its vast extension it is second only to the Charterhouse of Grenoble in France.
The Charterhouse of Padula, the monastery
It is possible to divide the architectural layout of the Certosa di Padula into two areas: the first includes the workplaces, while the second includes the area of residence of the monks.
The structure of the Charterhouse, as for all the other Charterhouses, follows the Carthusian rule, or the rule that preaches work and contemplation. Precisely for this reason in the Charterhouse there are different places for their implementation: the cloister, library, where it is still possible to admire the floor made of Vietrese ceramic tiles, the Chapel decorated with precious marbles, the great kitchen, the great wine cellars, the laundries and the neighboring fields where the fruits of the earth were cultivated for the sustenance of the monks.
Despite in the Church as in other places of the Certosa di Padula, the numerous empty spaces testify to the suppression of the Charterhouse by the French in the early nineteenth century, which caused the dispersion of numerous artistic treasures, the Certosa di Padula is a symbol of great architecture as well as a great past.
How to reach the Certosa di Padula?
The town of Padula and the respective monastery of San Lorenzo can be reached by car, for those coming from the North, along the Salerno - Reggio Calabria motorway, take the Padula exit – Good cockpit, and then continue along the national road SS 19. The closest railway station is that of Sicignano degli Alburni.
