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The Trisulti Charterhouse in Collepardo: Eight Centuries of Silence, Herbs, Frescoes and Mountains
At 825 metres above sea level, nestled in the oak forests of the Selva d'Ecio in the Ernici Mountains, the Certosa di Trisulti (Trisulti Charterhouse) is one of the most fascinating monasteries in central Italy. A national monument since 1879, it was founded in 1204 at the behest of Pope Innocent III, and entrusted to the Carthusians, who inhabited it for over seven hundred years. In 1947 it was passed on to the Cistercians of Casamari. The name derives from the Latin tres saltibus: three mountain passes leading to Abruzzo, Rome, and the south.
The Frescoed Pharmacy
The jewel of the Certosa is its 18th-century pharmacy, where the monks prepared medicines and herbal elixirs from plants gathered on the surrounding mountains. The cross-vaulted ceilings were decorated in the Pompeian style by Giacomo Manco, in keeping with the fashion that swept Italy following the excavations at Pompeii. In the small antechamber, Filippo Balbi, a Neapolitan painter who had taken refuge here during the Bourbon siege, produced a life-size portrait of the apothecary friar Benedetto Ricciardi — so lifelike as to deceive the eye.
The Church and the Library
The church of San Bartolomeo (St Bartholomew) has two wooden choir stalls dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, Baroque frescoes by Giuseppe Caci, and a dramatic Strage degli innocenti (Massacre of the Innocents) by Balbi. The national Library holds over 36,000 volumes, including precious liturgical manuscripts.
