The monastic Carthusian space

The Carthusian monks spend their extraordinary existence in an atmosphere of great contemplative silence and total hiding, protected by an extremely rigid form of enclosure, so much so that their monasteries are also called simply "deserts". The monastic Carthusian space constantly proposes a (functional) organization of the environments strictly dependent on the monks' peculiar kind of life, as specified in the Statutes of their Order, although from time to time harmoniously adapting also in creative terms to the morphological specificities of the different sites. Undoubtedly the Carthusian monasteries constitute a paradigmatic example of hidden geographies. They can however be "discovered" to some extent through an accurate reconnaissance of the precious testimonies - more or less well preserved and valorised from a cultural point of view - that the Carthusian monks have left in the places where they have lived in the past. Such testimonies can also be found in the territories of the Alpine-Adriatic region, i.e. within the current borders of Slovenia and Austria.