Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez

It was Béatrice de Roussillon who founded the Sainte-Croix charterhouse in 1280, in the hollow of a rolling landscape. It underwent several alterations over the centuries, notably in the seventeenth century. After the monks left, the monastery having been sold as national property at the Revolution, farmers came to settle in the buildings which thus turned into village dwellings.

The village has kept a harmonious and peaceful look. A porch opens in the four-round-tower enclosure wall and gives onto a first immense courtyard, surrounded by buildings: then you arrive by a paved passage along the old Carthusian cemetery and the church at the second courtyard lined by the monks' old cells. What was once the monastery kitchen has been restored by the charterhouse preservation association. The seventeenth-century church contains fifteenth-century stalls and sixteenth-century panelling. Of the original church, only a few remains survive: wall paintings, crucifixion, a group of praying Carthusians. The buildings and the two courtyards extend over an area of two hectares and are surrounded by gardens. An astonishing village imbued with serenity.

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