Florence - Galluzzo Carthusian Monastery Certosa del Galluzzo

Must-see attractions nearby: Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore Ponte Vecchio Palazzo Vecchio (Palazzo della Signoria) Loggia dei Lanzi Santa Croce Piazza della Signoria San Lorenzo

Niccolò Acciaiuoli, an important Florentine statesman and a friend of Petrarch and Boccaccio, had the monastery built in 1341 for the Carthusians, an anchorite order founded by St Bruno of Cologne. It contained blocks of individual cells for the monks and common areas for prayers and services. In the centuries that followed it was much extended and rebuilt. This hilltop monastery complex still bears the imprint of the Carthusian way, which trod an austere path between monastic community and the life of the hermit.

In earlier days the monastery was richly endowed with art treasures, but Napoleon robbed the order of about 500 works of art and only a few were ever returned.

In the late 18th and early 19th century Popes Pius VI and Pius VII spent long periods in the Foresteria, the monastery's guest-house.