CERTOSA DI SAN LORENZO

Dedicated to Saint Lawrence, the largest Carthusian monastery in Italy, with its 51,000^m2 of surface area, stands at the foot of the historic centre of Padula. Since 1998, it has been a Unesco World Heritage Site. Founded in 1306 by Count Sanseverino, it covers 500 years of history and styles, until the suppression of the religious order in 1807 during the Napoleonic period. Left abandoned during the 19th century, the Carthusian monastery of Padula became in turn a holiday centre for children, a lazaret, a prison camp during the Second World War... Restored in 1982, the monastic complex has more than 300 rooms and the largest cloister in Europe, with an area of 15,000^m2 and a gallery of 84 columns. It would take more than a day to visit everything: give preference to the cloister, the convent's paneled library, the church with its baroque interior adorned with marble, gilding and frescoes, whose wooden entrance door carved with bas-reliefs dates back to the 15th century, the kitchen with its grandiose fireplace (where, according to legend, in 1534, an omelette of 1,000 eggs was prepared for Charles V), and finally the great elliptical staircase of the 18th century probably designed by the Neapolitan architect Ferdinando Sanfelice.

Inside the monumental Carthusian monastery, you can also visit the Archaeological Museum of Lucanian Antiquities: interesting pieces found in the area, dating from Prehistory to Antiquity. A place of meditation that is worth the trip.