The guest tower
The guest tower, built in 1555, had a cell inside for the religious who came to the monastery and had to reside there temporarily: priors from other peninsular charterhouses, visitors who controlled compliance with the rules, artist monks… The character The best known person who inhabited it was Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Minister of Justice of Carlos IV, exiled in the Cartuja between 1801 and 1802 for his enlightened ideas. He was treated by the monks as a guest and, in gratitude, he lived as one of their own and enriched the library and the church.
Different in its architecture and more luxurious than the other cells, the one in the tower was organized in a similar way. The anteroom had a table where you could eat alone, but with the capacity to add, in the case of outstanding people, some companions. Next to it was the scriptorium, where the Carthusians copied or illuminated the manuscripts that today allow us to know their history. To do this, they made their own inks, mixing pigments with sulphates and using pens and parchment that they kept in boxes. The more private room included the oratory and the bedroom, where the bed was with a straw pallet. In this case, there was no workshop or orchard on the lower floor, which did exist in the other cells to complete prayer, study and writing with physical work.
Different in its architecture and more luxurious than the other cells, the one in the tower was organized in a similar way. The anteroom had a table where you could eat alone, but with the capacity to add, in the case of outstanding people, some companions. Next to it was the scriptorium, where the Carthusians copied or illuminated the manuscripts that today allow us to know their history. To do this, they made their own inks, mixing pigments with sulphates and using pens and parchment that they kept in boxes. The more private room included the oratory and the bedroom, where the bed was with a straw pallet. In this case, there was no workshop or orchard on the lower floor, which did exist in the other cells to complete prayer, study and writing with physical work.
