Gaming Charterhouse

The Kartause Gaming was founded in 1330 by Duke Albert II and became the largest Carthusian house in central Europe - which for that order means something specific, since Carthusians live as hermits in individual cells around a great cloister rather than in community, so the plan is dominated by one enormous quadrangle with the cell houses and their small gardens ranged around it, and that cloister survives. Albert and his wife are buried in the church. Joseph II dissolved the monastery in 1782 along with most contemplative houses, and the buildings went through use as a factory, a hunting seat and neglect before restoration from the 1980s. It now holds an American university programme, concerts, exhibitions and a hotel, and much of the complex can be walked through.

What you actually see

• A great Carthusian cloister - the enormous quadrangle with hermit cell houses around it.
• Individual cells and gardens - the layout of an order that lived alone, not in common.
• The founder's burial - Duke Albert II and his wife in the church.
• A reused complex - university, concerts, exhibitions and hotel in the buildings.

When to go

April to October; the complex is quiet in winter. Half a day.

Honest expectations

It is large, partly restored and partly not, with sections in private or institutional use and closed. Interpretation is patchy. Some buildings have been under scaffolding for long periods.

Nearby

Lunz am See and the Ötscher are south; Scheibbs is north.