The Certosa di San Lorenzo has been recognized World Heritage Site by Unesco and rises at the feet of the residential area.
With the form of a gridiron that remembers the martyrdom of the Saint, the building of the huge structure (13 cloisters, 41 fountains, more than 600 rooms, 1300 meters of colonnades sustained by 300 arches, 51 inside staircases) started in 1306, by the will of Tommaso Sanseverino who gave it to the Carthusian order and lasted for centuries.
After the exterior Courtyard, which precedes the main façade of Baroque style (1718), the Guest Quarters Cloister and the Church with the door of cedar of Lebanon, two preciously inlaid wood choir and a magnificent altar of scagliola and nacre meet. Passed the Chapter and the Room of the treasure, you enter the ancient Cemetery, the Chapel of the Founder and the Refectory with a magnificent stone pulpit sustained by an eagle.
Also the kitchens and the cellars have an outstanding charm with the huge olive-press of 1785. A spiral staircase of 38 snap-fit steps leads to the Library. Lastly, the big Cloister – with more than 500 meters of perimeter, enriched with 84 arches – leads to the elliptical Great staircase with the seven majestic windows that open the outside passage. The monumental complex, which moreover houses the Archaeological Museum of West Lucania, where objects dating back to the period IX c. BC – II c. AD are shown, is among the important art exhibition centers of Southern Italy and there, the CO.RE., permanent regional contemporary art exhibition, will be definitively opened.
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