Florence hotel with meeting room

Total Time: 4 hours
Time of day suggested: During the summer months the morning is suggested and during the winter, the afternoon is suggested.
Distance from the Hotel Relais Certosa: A 10-minute walk through the scenic and wind-swept hills of Florence amidst century-old olive trees.
Ticket: Entrance is free. Visits are conducted by Cistercian Monks and last for about 2 hours. After the tour, visitors are free to walk around outside the convent and in the cloister. Visit the convent's pharmacy where excellent liquors, honey, and natural medicines are sold.
Hours: From May 1 to September 30: 9 am -12 noon/3 pm to 6 pm
From October 1 to April 30: 9 am - 12 noon/3 pm to 7 pm
Summer Mass hours: 10 am and 11 am
Closed: Mondays
Address: Via Buca di Certosa
Telephone: 055/2049226

History
The Certosa of Florence was built in the fourteenth century by Niccolò Acciaioli, lord of Florence who belonged to a large and wealthy family of bankers, as a center for religious life and youth education.
Construction began in 1342 and continued for several centuries thanks to the monetary support of the Florentine nobility. The palace, named after Niccolò Acciaioli, was once his residence and now contains the Pinacoteca (painting and fine art gallery).

Introduction
The grandiose convent complex is a unique museum with works of art by great masters who worked in Florence between the 14th and 18th centuries. Today, the entire convent can be visited: the cloisters and their courtyards, the monk's quarters, the chapel and the rich Pinacoteca. From the mid 1900s, the Benedictine monks - who do not adhere to the rules of closure - have resided here. The Pinacoteca contains remarkable artistic and historical pieces. Among these, five lunettes that portray scenes from the Passion of Christ, opera completed by Pontormo between 1523 and 1525, originally placed in the large cloister.
The monumental complex is situated on the summit of Monte Acuto also called "Monte Santo", a cone-shaped hill, located near the village of Galuzzo, south of Florence.

DESCRIPTION OF ITINERARY
Leaving the Relais Certosa, you arrive in just a few minutes on the terrace thoroughfare of the Certosa where you can already see the impressive monastic complex, which appears as a small fortified city with the monk's quarters, the church and bell tower and the Palazzo Acciaioli. The scheme of the complex included 13 elements plus the guest quarters and is shown on the map.

The access to the monastery was reconstructed in the 16th century and consists of a ramp offering a beautiful view: on the right you can see the natural rock outcropping, from which the hill is formed and with which the convent was built.
Through a ramp with covered steps, you enter into the Pinacoteca of Palazzo Acciaiuoli that faces the church square. On the lower floor are four salons, which extend all the way up to and under the large square.
The Pinacoteca contains frescoes originally located in the large Cloister portraying episodes of the Passion of Christ, painted by Jacopo Pontormo.

Jacopo Carucci, called the "Pontormo" was born in Pontorme di Empoli in 1494 and moved to Florence in 1508. His teachers were Mariotto Albertinelli, Piero di Cosimo and Andrea del Sarto.
Between 1523 and 1525 he did the frescoes for the Certosa of Galluzzo, while the plague epidemic was ravaging through Florence.
The salons lead you directly to the square of the church.
On the longer walls in the square, half-columns in the Doric-Tuscan style were positioned on the perimeter wall.
The church was originally built in the 14th century, but was totally renovated in the 16th century, when the facade and the choir, where 17th century paintings and the remarkable carved and inlaid wooden choir stalls) were done.
From here you can enter the fifteenth-century Chapel of Santa Maria, restored in the neo-gothic style in the 19th century.
Note the two sculptures by Andrea Della Robbia
Note the two sculptures by Andrea Della Robbia high up on the walls. Cross the corridor, also called "colloquium of the monks" where the monks could talk on pre-established days and times, and you arrive in the large cloister. During the 15th century, the cloister was fully rebuilt. Its once abundant pictorial and decorative heritage is relatively reduce, due to neglect and repeated looting and theft.
The Certosa remained the property or the Cistercian Order up until October 1810 when, by order of Napoleon, one hundred and fifty French infantry were transferred there.
After the restoration of the Grand Duke of Tuscany (1819), the monks were able to re-enter the monastery and secure the relocation of the various pieces of art to their original place. The two rectangles, inside the cloister towards the gallery of the church, are used as a religious burial ground; the one on the right for the monks, the other for the converted brothers. The cistern, or well, in the middle of the lawn, was built in 1521 by Francesco Gabbriello. The fourth side of the cloister is occupied by the base wall of the church and the structures located parallel to it: the chapel of reliquaries, the sacristy, the chapter house, and the refectory. The monks' cloister is also called cloister of the cells because 18 cells are placed on three sides.
The cell structure is visible from the outside and from their roofs that rise above the gallery and courtyard. The entrance doors to the individual cells - surmounted with lunette-shaped frescoes- are marked with a letter from the alphabet.
Next to each door is a small opening through which food was passed.
Cistercian monks spent their entire lives inside this small world, leaving only to celebrate the daily and nightly liturgies and on holidays for meals shared in the refectory.
The areas available to the monks are the ground floor, the garden with the well, the laboratory and the woodshed; on the upper floor, at the same height as the ambulatory of the cloister three rooms beyond the entrance corridor, which served for eating, studying, and resting, che servivano per mangiare, studiare. Some personal effects of the monks are also conserved in these rooms.
The small monks' cloister and the cloister of the converted are also interesting. From the cloister of the converted you return to the square in front of the church and under the loggia are the rooms intended as guest quarters.
The three rooms which are part of this visit are designated Apartment of the Pope, in remembrance of the extended stay of Pope Pius VI who was forced to remain from June 1798 to March 1799 because he was prisoner to Napoleon, and Pope Pius VII, who stayed for two days on July 8-9, 1809.
It is not so much the artistic value of the rooms but rather their historical value that elicits interest. Almost everything you see in the furnishings recalls the presence of the two Popes.
Towards the exit of the square of the church there is a magnificent view that brings the spirituality of the monastery in close contact with the beauty of the landscape..
The pharmacy and the restrooms are located outside of the residential monastic complex.

Note:
It would be worthwhile to go and see a painting of Pontormo, exhibited in the Gallery of the Uffizi , that comes from the Certosa and has been perfectly preserved.
The work, dating back to 1525, was done for the refectory of the guest quarters. In its composition the painter drew inspiration from a print by Dürer, as he was when he did the lunettes of the cloister, which portrayed the episodes of the Passion of Christ.
The artist paid special attention to the objects on the table, the pitcher, the glasses and the plate and the effect of the light shining on them, achieving a level of naturalism that could be defined as pre Caravaggio.
Even the representation of pets beneath the table gives the piece a familiar and every-day harmony to the scene. To humanize the event even further, some of the monks then living at the monastery served as models for those in the painting dressed as servants.