The Carthusian Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, was founded in 1400 by the Archbishop of Seville Don Gonzalo de Mena, turned into a pottery factory in the 19th century by Charles Pickman, and rescued from his abandonment to become, after his rehabilitation integral, in the Royal Pavilion of the Universal Exhibition of 1992.
It is a monastery that, enclosed behind its walls, retains its original size and much of its Carthusian splendor and its past as a faience factory, all integrated into a set that offers new uses to the city: Museum of Contemporary Art and Andalusian Institute of Historical Heritage.
Christopher Columbus was buried in this monastery before his remains left for Santo Domingo, thanks to the friendship he established with a Carthusian friar. Its walls were decorated by the best of Triana tiles, including one of the first works of Niculoso Pisano.
From the Cartuja period the church with its chapels, the refectory, part of the cloister of monks and the magnificent Claudillo Mudéjar, where the magnificent tombs of the co-founders, Pedro Enríquez and Catalina de Ribera, are preserved, converted into rooms of the Museum, are converted into rooms of the Museum. , in addition to other relatives, all in the Chapter Room