Walk around Escaladei and learn about the monastery, founded in the 12th century by French Carthusian monks from Provence and the first of its kind in the Iberian Peninsula. The monks chose a unique place for its construction, located at the foot of the Montsant massif, where a shepherd had dreamed of angels climbing to heaven on a ladder leaning against a large pine tree; hence the name Escaladei – “God's Ladder”.
The ladder to heaven, or ladder to God, can be found again today in the priory logo.
The charterhouse existed until 1835 and lived through periods of great splendor. For seven centuries the monks tilled the fields, built mills and taught agricultural techniques and viticulture. The prior, hence the name of the region, was the judge and administrator of the villages in the center of what is now the county, roughly corresponding to what is now the Priorat growing area.
With the secularization of the church property (expropriation) by Mendizábal (1835), the monks were forced to flee suddenly, leaving their cells, the cloisters, the church and the guest house abandoned. In just two years, the once-magnificent Charterhouse was reduced to rubble as peasants weary of servitude, tithes, and submission plundered it.
The monastery ruins are open to the public: visitors are led to the three cloisters, the church and the dining room, as well as to a cell that has been reconstructed with great care.
A visit to the Carthusian monastery of Escaladei is a must for anyone who wants to discover the origins of the Priorat region.