Padula
Recognized in 1998 as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the Certosa di San Lorenzo, also known as the Certosa di Padula is certainly one of the most beautiful places in the province of Salerno.
The beautiful Certosa di San Lorenzo makes the Municipality of Padula the main destination for 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 fourteenth-century traces. The complex has about 350 rooms and occupies an area of 51,500 m² of which 15,000 are occupied only by the cloister, the largest in the world. The Certosa di San Lorenzo, thanks to its vast extension, is second only to the Certosa di Grenoble in France.
The Certosa di 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 is the residence area of the monks. The structure of the Charterhouse, as for all the other Charterhouses, follows the Carthusian rule, that is the rule that preaches work and contemplation. Precisely for this reason there are different places in the Charterhouse for their implementation: the cloister, the library, where it is still possible to admire the floor made of Vietrese ceramic tiles, the Chapel decorated with precious marble, the large kitchen, the large wine cellars, the laundries and neighboring fields where the fruits of the earth were grown 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 Certosa 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 beyond that of a great past.
How to reach Padula Charterhouse?
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 – Buonabitacolo exit, and then continue along the national road SS 19. The the nearest railway station is that of Sicignano degli Alburni.
