Palais des Papes annexe cloister

Across the Rhône from Avignon, the Chartreuse du Val de Bénédiction is one of the largest Carthusian monasteries in France, founded by a fourteenth-century pope. Its three cloisters, monks' cells and frescoed chapel spread across a quiet enclosure now used partly as a residence for artists. A tomb of the founding pope survives in the church. A distinctive detail is the chapel frescoed by the Italian painter Matteo Giovannetti, whose delicate scenes of saints once decorated the papal palace opposite.