Travel
Certosa di Pavia: Don’t miss monastery
Stars and Stripes
May 3, 2007
Beautiful inlaid woodwork with designs of flowers, vines, and delicate portraits decorated the choir stalls at the Certosa di Pavia Monastery. (Mary Kieran / Special to S&S)
Beautiful inlaid woodwork with designs of flowers, vines, and delicate portraits decorated the choir stalls at the Certosa di Pavia Monastery. (Mary Kieran / Special to S&S)
The Small Cloister at the Certosa di Pavia Monastery has a small formal garden surrounded by covered walkways decorated in warm-colored terracotta designs. (Mary Kieran / Special to S&S)
Certosa di Pavia Monastery, considered one of the architectural masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, is about an hour’s drive from Cremona.
The 15th-century Carthusian monastery features detailed inlaid woodwork on the choir stalls, colorful frescoes, altars inlaid with semiprecious stones, marble flooring, courtyards with fine terracotta designs, statues and carvings of Roman emperors, a small formal garden in the Small Cloister, and 24 monks cells in the Great Cloister, where modern-day monks live a life of silence and contemplation.
Admission to the monastery is free; donationas are accepted.
From Cremona, take A21 west toward Piacenza/Torino. After Stradella look for exit S35 north toward Milano. Stay on the main road past Pavia, and then look for signs for Certosa di Pavia.