Cartuja de Porta Coeli

The Porta Coeli Charterhouse (Santa María de Porta Coeli) is located in the municipality of Serra, in the Val de Lullén, about 30 kilometers north of Valencia, at an altitude of 300 meters. Founded in 1272 by the bishop of Valencia André d'Albalat, with monks from Scala Dei, it is the first charterhouse in the kingdom of Valencia.

The Carthusians lived there until 1835, when the expulsion of the religious forced them to leave. The monastery passed into private hands, then became a sanatorium in 1898. Purchased by the Diputación de Valencia, it was returned to the order: a community from Miraflores settled there on March 21, 1944. In 2011, the monks of the Aula Dei charterhouse, near Zaragoza, joined them.

The complex includes four cloisters and an aqueduct that brings water from a nearby spring. A small community lives the Carthusian life there, between the solitude of the cell and communal prayer in the church. In recent years, it has welcomed new aspirants.