Certosa di Pavia Monastery - Pavia, Italy
N 45° 15.392 E 009° 08.760
32T E 511455 N 5011458
Certosa di Pavia is a famous monastery complex in Lombardy, Italy, situated near a small town with the same name.
Waymark Code: WMMY8K
Location: Lombardia, Italy
Date Posted: 11/22/2014
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Certosa is the Italian name for Charterhouse, which relates to the cloistered monastic order. The late medieval (northern Italian gothic) Certosa of Pavia is noted for a highly decorated facade and church interior.
The Certosa di Pavia contains a detailed bas-relief depiction of the founding on 27 August 1396 of the structure by Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1351 – 1402).
It contains the tomb of the first Duke of Milans of Milanese, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and of despots such as Ludovico Sforza (“The Moor”), 7th Duke of Milano (1452 – 1508 (46)), and his wife Beatrice d’Este.
In the church of the chartreuse there are also paintings and frescoes by Perugino, Bergognone, Bernardino Luini, Andrea Solari, Cerano, Morazzone, Guercino, Daniele Crespi and Giulio Cesare Procaccini and sculptures by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo and Cristoforo Solari.
One of the most magnificent of all monastic structures, the Certosa di Pavia has been maintained as a national monument since 1866. The church, forming its nucleus, was begun in the style of the Italian Gothic in 1396 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, duke of Milano.
Little more than the nave was executed in this style, since the Renaissance, diffusing its new taste, quickly dominated the design of the edifice. The facade seems to have been begun in 1491 by a group of architects and sculptors under the leadership of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo; it was finished in the mid-16th century.
Built of rich marbles and profusely ornamented with fine sculptural decorations, the facade of the Certosa di Pavia is one of the masterpieces of Renaissance decorative design. The two large arcaded cloisters are of richly ornamented terra-cotta. The main choir was badly damaged in World War II but was restored between 1953 and 1959.