The Certosa di San Lorenzo in Padula

The Charterhouse of Padula, or San Lorenzo is a charterhouse located in Padula, in the Vallo di Diano, in the province of Salerno. It is the first charterhouse to be built in Campania, anticipating that of San Martino in Naples and San Giacomo in Capri. Extending over an area of ​​51,500 m², arranged over three cloisters, a garden, a courtyard and a church, it is one of the most sumptuous Baroque monumental complexes in southern Italy, as well as the largest charterhouse nationwide and one of the largest in Europe. Since 1957 it has housed the provincial archaeological museum of western Lucania; in 1998 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO together with the nearby archaeological sites of Velia, Paestum, Vallo di Diano and the Cilento National Park. On the extreme western side of the complex, dating back to the last quarter of the eighteenth century, is the monumental elliptical staircase. Closed on the outside by an octagonal tower, the staircase leads to the first floor of the large cloister, used by the cloistered monks for their "weekly walk".

Monumental elliptical staircase

In Thomas Salmon's documents of 1763 the work is not mentioned, while this happens for the first time in 1779, so it is within this time frame that the building of the staircase is placed. The work is the result of Gaetano Barba, architect pupil of Luigi Vanvitelli who worked in the Charterhouse from the seventies of the eighteenth century to complete the gallery on the first floor of the large cloister. Probably the project is instead of Ferdinando Sanfelice, Neapolitan master creator of this type of double ramp architecture.

The material used for the work, according to sources of the time it cost 64,000 ducats, is the stone of Padula. At the center of the staircase is the coat of arms of the Charterhouse of San Lorenzo: bishop's miter (the prior was still a bishop), the crown of the marquis, the bishop's pastoral staff, the symbol of San Lorenzo (the grill) and finally the torch, which upwards would mean auspicious years, downwards, years of misery. Going up the staircase, the octagonal tower that closes it from the outside is characterized by seven large windows opening towards the Italian garden, of an eighteenth-century reconstruction that the cloistered monks used for their outings during the holidays. From here, finally, the entire green area that surrounds the external walls of the complex develops.

Italian garden seen from the elliptical staircase

The gardens of the Certosa all develop around the complex, however, falling within the boundaries delimited by the external walls. Behind the monumental staircase, is the desertum, an eighteenth-century Italian garden used by the cloistered monks and the prior during their external exits, for the monks only allowed during the holidays.

It is probably the oldest path in the park, made during the eighteenth-century expansionism, even if originally it was characterized by several avenues and by orchards and vineyards.When the cloistered monks could not use the space, then this as well as the surrounding ones were used by the conversed monks (therefore not cloistered) who used them for their commercial activities with the outside world.In the gardens there are some sacred shrines, fountains and a chapel dedicated to Magdalene.