Actually I'd never heard of it before. It was a book in the house, left behind by previous guests, from which we learned about this monastery...
Unfortunately it was a rainy day. We arrived after a short drive, just one hour of South Italian small mountain road traffic, the driver (i.e. me) was near exhaustion :-)
The outer courtyard is the interface between the monastery and the outer world. Here ordinary people were admitted to buy products produced by the monks or sell their stuff.
Some strange statues in this courtyard try to scare the visitors. 
Being a monk seems to be not funny...
After entering the sacred part of the building it opens to the worlds largest cloister (according to Wikipedia).
In these colonnades the monks spent part of their time walking some rounds as a physical exercise. Talking was not permitted, they lived under a vow of silence (no wonder that they were only male monks, this is impossible with nuns ;-)
Overlooking the whole complex is the city of Padula, built on top of a hill like so many villages in this part of Italy.In the middle of the cloister is a small graveyard.
Scary art here again...not sure if it is an authentic skull. Probably a monk who was caught talking to someone else ;-)
The weather got even more ugly so it was time to see the inside of the building.
The next pictures follow in part 2 because a) this post is getting too long and b) the European football champions league finals on tv next to me is so thrilling, I have to pay full attention now (tied 1:1 after the first half, great goals of Christiano Ronaldo and Lampert!!).....sorry ;-)
