The imposing edifice, dedicated to San Lorenzo, is one of the most outstanding baroque monument of southern Italy. Built just helow the center of Padula at an altitude of 532 meters,it spans over a surface of 51.500 square rneters with all its marvellous courtyards, cloisters and gardens.
The nobleman Tommaso Sanseverino, count of Marsico and lord of Padula, hàd the construction hegun in 1306. Not lintil the 1800 was the building completed, which accounts for its elegant baroque character. Padula's Certosa was declared a national monument already in 1882. The building was a monastery open to pilgrims and foresters. Arnong the many visitors in 1535 was the sovereign Carlo V on his return from Tunisia.
History tells us that an omelet of 1.000 eggs was cooked for him and his numerous followers on this occasion.During the French Period the Certosa was suppressed as a religious building to house 20.000 soldiers. The certosini monks were allowed back only after the fall of the Napoleonic empire with the return to the thrown of the Bourbon. During the two great world wars (1915-1918 and 1940-1945) the Certosa was turned into a concentration camp.Like the iherian Escurial,the building was built in the form of a gridirion (in honor of San Lorenzo). The handle represented by the two wings that close around the atrium and the grate by the monks' quarters. The whole building is dominated by the grand semicircle staircase and the cupola.
The atrium and the façade are particularly fascinating. The atrium is surrounded on both sides by two wings used in the past for stables, pharmacies and workshops, today used for offices, and directly above on the upper floor the pilgrim's quarters with a lovely fountain in the courtyard below. The baroque facade from 1718 with double order columns is decorated with statues of saints Brunone, Lorenzo, Pietro and Paolo placed in individual niches. At the end of the long entrance hallway is the imposing staircase. She forester's lodgings were to the right of the entrance around a Ibth century cloister with portico, loggia and fountain. The doorway to the church dating from 1374 is decorated in bas-relief of scenes from the life of San Lorenzo.