The Museum of the Certosa is located in the Palazzo Ducale which once housed noble guests to the Certosa di Pavia, then a lodge belonging to the Dukes of Milan who used it when hunting in the Parco Visconteo of Pavia.
The present version of the Palazzo, dating to 1625, was designed by architect Francesco Maria Richini. The Museum is spread out over two floors. On the ground floor is the Gipsoteca or plaster cast gallery, which houses the casts of the decoration of the Certosa façade and a small number of religiously themed paintings.
The first floor holds the elegant, late-Renaissance Studiolo Ducale whose frescoes evoke Durer and Perugino, and rooms dedicated to Renaissance statuary and paintings from the late 1400s with valuable works by Bergognone, Bartolomeo Montagna, Bernardino Luini and frescoes by Bernardino De Rossi, all of which were originally in the Certosa. The salon with the portraits of Visconti and Sforza Dukes is also fascinating.
Museo della Certosa di Pavia
Palazzo Ducale, Viale Monumento 4
Tel: 0382 924990
Email: pm-lom@beniculturali.it
