Montebenedetto Charterhouse

The site quickly proved unsuitable and the monks built a new monastery on lands given by Tommaso of Moriana, Montebenedetto Charterhouse, which the Losa community occupied in 1197 or 1198.

The community at Banda moved in 1598 to Avigliana Charterhouse, but Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, had the buildings destroyed for defensive reasons in 1630.

The dispossessed monks were given Collegno Charterhouse in 1642, but in the intervening years temporarily reoccupied the buildings at Montebenedetto and Banda.

Montebenedetto is situated at an altitude of 1,120 metres above sea level, in a clearing surrounded by woods, next to the Fontane river.

The great and small cloisters, the cells and the buildings of the lay brothers were damaged in the flood and fell into ruin after the monastery was abandoned.