Certosadi Pavia

Certosa di Pavia, a Carthusian monastery a few miles from Pavia, founded in 1396 by one of the Visconti, Duke of Milan, in expiation of a murder. The cruciform church has a beautiful fifteenth-century facade designed by Borgognone. There is a good high altar, a mausoleum of the founder, and an extraordinary profusion of rich marbles, paintings, and other valuable decorations. The monastery is now a national monument. Francis I. of France was a prisoner here in 1525 after the battle of Pavia.