Chartreuse de Champmol & Well of Moses

The Carthusian monastery of Champmol was founded in 1383 by Philip the Bold to house the tombs of the Burgundian dukes. The monastery was destroyed during the Revolution; what remains, on the grounds of a 19th-century psychiatric hospital west of the centre, is the church portal (with sculptures by Sluter) and the Well of Moses — the lower part of what was once a monumental Calvary.

The Well of Moses is one of the most important pieces of late-medieval European sculpture, and seeing it in its original setting in the hospital grounds — rather than reassembled in a museum — is genuinely moving. Open daily; modest admission. Take tram T1 to Champmol.

things to do sight architecture
A story
Claus Sluter's Well of Moses, carved between 1395 and 1405, was originally the base of a 25-metre Crucifixion that stood in the cloister of the Carthusian monastery. The figures of Moses, David, Jeremiah, and three other prophets were polychromed and gilded; faint traces of the original red and blue paint survive. They are widely considered the first works of European sculpture to break decisively with medieval convention.

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