Jerez de la Frontera - Charterhouse

(Local Name: Cartuja) A few kilometers southeast of Jerez is the Cartuja, a former Carthusian monastery founded in 1477. Here in the 16th century German, Italian and Andalusian horses were crossed to produce the ''Carthusian'' breed. In the mid 18th century Charles III presented several Cartuja stallions to the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, and these became the ancestors of the famous Lipizzaner horses of the Vienna Riding School. The monastery has a magnificent Renaissance gateway (1571) and a Gothic church with a richly decorated facade of 1667.