Overview

In the second half of the 14th century, Jacopo Arcucci, Count of Minervino and Lord of Altamura, Secretary of State and Treasurer of Queen Giovanna I of Anjou, founded the complex, as attested by the fresco on the church portal, dating from around 1371. In 1373, the Sovereign, already protector of the Carthusians of St Martin, sent the Fathers to the Certosa. Due to pirate raids, the building was severely damaged and underwent renovations from 1563.
The architecture presents an extraordinary stratification of interventions, but remains characterised by the unmistakable style of the Mediterranean area. The building consists of plastered tufa ashlars, sometimes extruded, the primitive 14th-century cloister, known as the Piccolo, with columns and capitals, was partially transformed and enlarged in the 16th and 18th centuries. In the 16th century, the monumental Cloister, known as the Great Cloister, with limestone pillars, was added. Surrounding the Great Cloister are the monks' cells and the so-called Quarto del Priore, often used as a venue for temporary exhibitions, which overlooks the Prior's Garden, rich in medicinal plants and herbs, planted in accordance with traditional texts on Carthusian spices.
The church has a 14th-century layout, with frescoes dating from the late 17th and early 18th centuries and paintings by the painter Nicola Malinconico (Naples 1663 -1721), depicting Saints and Characters from the Old Testament. The most recent architecture is the so-called Canonica, renovated by the Lateran Canons in the 18th century, on two levels, with the tower decorated with 18th-century stuccoes. In 1808, the Certosa suffered the confiscation of property and was later used as barracks, a hospice for invalids and the headquarters of the 5th Company of Discipline. Here anarchists and military misconduct were sent.
Starting in the late 19th century, the Certosa underwent restoration work and, in 1927, some 14th-century structures were brought to light, in the 1930s, it housed the gymnasium and library entrusted to the Canonici regolari Lateranensi, who abandoned the monument after World War II. The Refectory houses the Diefenbach Museum, containing work by the German painter Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, who died on the island in 1913, a gift from his heirs. In more recent times, the Certosa di San Giacomo has undergone further restoration work and is the venue for temporary exhibitions, conferences, concerts, performances and cultural events.