Florence - Galluzzo Carthusian Monastery

(Local Name: Certosa del Galluzzo) The former Carthusian monastery of Galluzzo is equally famed for its architecture and its works of art. It is reached by taking the Siena road from Florence, then turning right at the end of Galluzzo following the signs to the monastery. The last Carthusian left in 1956 when the monastery passed to the Cistercians. The Benedictine monks who have the monastery today will gladly take visitors round - the tour is usually in Italian - for a voluntary contribution.

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.