Garegnano Charterhouse, also known as Milan Charterhouse ( or Certosa di Milano) is a former Carthusian

Carthusian

The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...

 monastery, or charterhouse

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

, located on the outskirts of Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, in the Garegnano

Garegnano

Garegnano is a district of Milan, Italy, part of the Zone 8 administrative division of the city, north-west of the city centre. Before being annexed to Milan, it has been an autonomous comune, originally known as Garegnano Marcido....

 district. It now houses a community of Capuchin Friars.

History

The monastery, dedicated to Saint Ambrose but also known as Our Lady of the Lamb of God, was founded in 1349 by Giovanni Visconti, bishop and lord of Milan. In the 14th century it housed, among others, the poet Petrarch

Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...

. It was pillaged in 1449 when the Visconti dynasty fell. It was suppressed under the rationalist reforms of the Emperor Joseph II, Milan then being under Austrian rule, and became a parish church in 1782. In 1960 the surviving buildings and parochial duties were taken over by the Capuchin Friars.

The present buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The main artworks include a cycle of frescos by Simone Peterzano

Simone Peterzano

Simone Peterzano was an Italian painter of the later Mannerism, native of Bergamo. He is mostly known as the master of Caravaggio....

 (1578) and Daniele Crespi

Daniele Crespi

Daniele Crespi was an Italian painter of the Baroque era. He was born in Busto Arsizio, and active mostly in the Milan of Federico Borromeo....

 (1629). The chapter house

Chapter house

A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monasteries....

 contains, in the vault, a fresco of Saint Michael by Bernardo Zenale

Bernardo Zenale

Bernardo Zenale was an Italian painter and architect.- Biography :Zenale was born in Treviglio, Lombardy, where in 1485 he finished the great polyptych for the church of St. Martin, together with his fellow Bernardino Butinone. Later he collaborated to the decoration of the Certosa di Pavia...

of the early 16th century.

Further reading

• Leoncini, Giovanni, 2000: Tra passato e futuro: la vita di alcune importanti certose di Italia. Analecta Cartusiana no 160, Salzburg