The Certosa di Pisa in Calci is a vast monumental complex that rises on the slopes of Monte Pisano, a few kilometers from the city of Pisa. Founded in 1366 by a Carthusian family, the complex was enlarged between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and today it presents itself as a splendid Baroque monument inserted in a highly suggestive landscape. Originally called "dark", the Calci valley was renamed Val Graziosa (full of grace) following the foundation of the monastic complex. In 1972 the Certosa, abandoned from the few remaining monks, it became a National Museum, while in 1979 the western part of the complex was granted in perpetual and free use to the University of Pisa, which founded the Museum of Natural History, which has since then been enlarged, enriched and renovated.
Today the Charterhouse therefore houses two distinct museums: the National Museum of the Monumental Charterhouse of Calci and the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa. The two museum institutions were born at different times, belong to distinct public bodies, are located in different parts of the complex and have two different thematic and didactic profiles. However, their apparently so different events and collections are inextricably intertwined with the fascinating history of the large building that houses them.
