The village of Calci stands on the slopes of Mt. Pisano in the center of the so-called Val Graziosa , where you can visit the beautiful “Certosa di Pisa” or Charterhouse. Founded as a monastery in 1366; this complex was later expanded, owing its present appearance to work carried out in the XVII and XVIII centuries.

The period of greatest splendour for the Charterhouse was the XVIII century, suppressed at the beginning on the 19th century by Napoleon I when it was reoccupied by Cartusian monks through 1972.

The building was clearly based on the typical model of the Cartusian monastery; the architects were often the monks themselves, best able to interpret the organizational and religious aspects of life in the Charterhouse. The contrast between hermitism and cenobitic life, which at an architectural level, required a spatial linkage between solitude and the community life, was represented by two symbolic elements: the cell and the church.

During the guided tour you will first visit the Courtyard flanked by buildings formerly housing the stables, an oil mill, a distillery, a laundry and a carpenter’s shop. You will then proceed to the Church (XIV century, radically rebuilt in the XVII and XVIII centuries), followed by the Chapels (private spaces where the monks celebrated mass), including the Chapel of Saint Bruno.

Additional tour highlights are the Large Cloister, a Cell, the Refectory, the Grand-Ducal Apartment, the apothecary’s shop.