The village of Sainte-Croix-en-Jarez is, in its entirety, a converted Carthusian monastery. The Chartreuse was founded in 1280 by Béatrix de la Tour du Pin and grew over the following centuries into a substantial complex of two great courtyards, a church, chapter house, chapter hall, and the individual cells in which the Carthusian monks lived their lives of almost total solitude. The Carthusians were, and remain, the strictest of the contemplative orders: their monks rarely speak, meet for meals only on Sundays and feast days, and spend most of their existence alone in their cells.
When the Revolution came in 1793, the monks were expelled and the property sold. Local families moved in and adapted the buildings to domestic use with extraordinary directness — cells became cottages, the cloistered walks became streets, the great courtyard became the village square. The church and chapter hall were preserved and can be visited. Walking through the two courtyards — the smaller grand cloître and the larger low cloître — and looking at the medieval stonework with washing lines strung between the arches and potted plants outside the doors gives a genuinely peculiar sensation. The whole ensemble is classified as a monument historique.
Guided tours of the church and chapter hall are available in summer; the courtyards are accessible year-round. Check locally for the tourist office hours as they are seasonal.