The Certosa (Charterhouse) di Valmanera, which according to several historians was founded during the first half of the 8th century by Liutprando, king of the Lombards, is an ancient monastery that housed the Benedictine monks up until the Napoleonic invasions (around 1800). Abandoned and then sacked and partially destroyed, it was recuperated and restored as a museum and cultural space around the mid 1900’s. Today, it houses one of the few textile labs active in Italy, specializing in the production of modern tapestries. Adjacent to the Laboratorio (Laboratory), is the Arazzeria (Tapestry Factory) Ugo Scassa which has a very interesting collection of textile tapestries starting with sketches and pasteboards by great contemporary artists: Renato Guttoso, Felice Casorati, and Umberto Mastroianni among the Italians; Paul Klee, Vasilij Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, and Joan Miro among the international artists.
