La Certosa di Calci - History and art immersed in nature

Among the Pisan hills there is a plain called Val Graziosa; this is where the Certosa di Calci is located, a former Carthusian convent dating back to 1366. The structure of this complex is impressive, 15,000 square meters spread over three floors. The entrance is fascinating, with a seventeenth-century vestibule where stands the statue of San Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order. Throughout the entire structure there is a deep overlap of history and styles. This can be seen from the glimpses of more ancient structures, vaguely Gothic, which are overlaid with internal and external decorations according to the Baroque taste. The structure is populated by numerous frescoed chapels. Among these it is worth mentioning that of San Ranieri, where we find an eighteenth-century painting by Giovan Battista Tempesti depicting the patron saint of Pisa. In the chapel of San Bruno there is a canvas by Jacopo Vignali showing the saint, while in the chapel of the Virgin of the Rosary we can admire the frescoes by Giuseppe Maria Terreni. There are other chapels of great interest, such as that of San Sebastiano and that of the Relics. The tourist route allows you to be fascinated by the visit of these wonders. The walls of the complex almost seem to cut out the external countryside to delimit the geometries of gardens and cloisters, all kept with great care, little jewels of botany. In the west wing, the tour can be concluded by visiting the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa, which includes zoological, paleontological and mineralogical collections.