Charterhouse of Santi Stefano e Bruno

The Charterhouse of Saints Stephen and Bruno is one of the few Carthusian abbeys still active in Italy. It was founded by St Bruno of Cologne in 1091, following the land donation of Roger of Altavilla.

Damaged by numerous earthquakes (in particular the one in 1783), the Charterhouse of Serra San Bruno was reduced to a pile of rubble, to be rebuilt in 1889 according to a project based on the Romanesque and Baroque repertoire, with new rooms and the renovation of the 16th-century pre-existing buildings still standing: the Refectory, the Chapter House, the Library and the Chapel of Relics.

Countless legends and traditions are linked to the Charterhouse of Serra San Bruno: the writer Leonardo Sciascia speculated that the physicist Ettore Majorana, a pupil of Enrico Fermi, who disappeared in 1938 under mysterious circumstances, took refuge within its walls. The Charterhouse has been visited by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.