Architettura e liturgia nell’ordine certosino

Despite the limited number of medieval structures that have survived, the relationship between Carthusian religious architecture and liturgy can still be investigated through comparative analysis and material traces. Charterhouses notably share several features with Cistercian abbeys, both emerging within the broader context of the 11th-century monastic renewal. At the architectural level, certain elements common to both orders help us better understand how Carthusian buildings may have appeared in the Middle Ages. Among these, one particularly significant feature is the presence of partitions inside the church, structures also later adopted by the mendicant orders. These masonry walls, usually with a central doorway, allowed for a spatial separation during the celebration of the liturgical office in the domus superior, distinguishing the choir monks from the lay brothers. Most were removed following the liturgical reforms of the Council of Trent, and few examples have survived. Evidence of their original presence comes from written sources, such as Consuetudines Cartusiae of Guigo I, and from archaeological remains, for example those uncovered during the restoration of the charterhouse of Montebenedetto in Piedmont. A rare preserved example is still visible today in the church of the charterhouse of Pleterje in Slovenia, dating from the early 15th century.