The high-tech renaissance of the Padula Charterhouse

With a construction history spanning several centuries, Padula Charterhouse is Italy’s largest monastery and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Today, it has become the centerpiece of a movement aimed at reversing the economic migration robbing southern Italy of its most valuable asset: people, especially the entrepreneurial and the young.

Small villages in Italy suffer from poor connectivity, isolation and a lack of jobs, especially in the south. This drives away local talent, and could result in the abandonment of these places.

Yet those same villages constitute the backbone of the Italian municipal system. Now, they are emerging as new centers of tourist interest seen as living repositories of the local cultural heritage.

The regeneration of territories requires the integration of culture, innovation and digital infrastructure. This is the context that gave rise to La Tornanza, a cultural and entrepreneurial project conceived by c-founders authors Antonio Prota and Flavio R. Albano. One of La Tornanza’s first concrete applications can be seen at the Charterhouse of Padula.

Launched by the book La Tornanza: Ritorni e innesti orientati al future, the project has evolved into a “phygital” (physical and digital) hub, as well as an academy, festival, and community of innovators inspired by the Digital Village model. At its heart is tornanza: the conscious return of people and skills to marginalized areas as a lever for sustainable development.

Padula has shown how the right digital infrastructure can help marginalized areas fight depopulation and economic decline. By providing the same level of digital opportunity found in major urban centers, Padula is trying to prove that geography no longer dictates the limits of innovation and that the current trend can be reversed through positive initiatives driven by the potential of technology.

“Returning to these areas is not nostalgia, but innovation,” says Antonio Prota of La Tornanza. “For us, Padula is a laboratory where culture, business and technology generate concrete opportunities.”

The foundation stone: ultra-broadband connectivity

For a community of innovators to thrive in a historical site, the primary requirement is invisible but essential: a robust, secure digital foundation. Huawei was called on to solve a unique challenge: providing world-class connectivity within the strict conservation constraints of a UNESCO site.

The solution was a fully optical FTTO (Fiber-to-the-Office) network. Unlike traditional cabling, this optical infrastructure allows for the ultra-fast data transmission essential for bandwidth-intensive activities such as AI development, cloud computing, and videoconferencing. Because the FTTO approach is non-invasive, it preserved the architectural integrity of the Charterhouse while offering 30% lower energy consumption compared to traditional systems.

A living laboratory for "digital monks"

Powered by this green communications infrastructure, disused parts of the monastery complex have been turned into a vibrant hive of start-up courses, AI hackathons, and creative residencies. Rather than retreating from the world, these "monks" are connected to it more deeply than ever before.

The ability to send, receive, and manage data quickly has led to the site’s recognition as one of Italy’s four “EU Start-up Villages,” a designation given to rural areas that have proved they have the infrastructure to support high-tech entrepreneurship.

By implementing Huawei's “Digital Village” model—a blueprint that combines high-speed connectivity with local community engagement—the project is creating a scalable template that can be replicated across the national 'La Tornanza' network of historic towns. It shows that with the right connectivity, remote areas can become "talent magnets," reversing the "brain drain" that has affected the Italian countryside for decades.

The improved network will enhance the experience for all visitors to the Padula Charterhouse. This includes:

• Tourists visiting the monastery
• Local school students from the surrounding area
• Young entrepreneurs who use the "Digital Monks" area as a hub to develop tech-based startups.

By providing an attractive workspace, the initiative encourages them to remain in the region, improving its accessibility through innovative services.

Innovation unlimited by geography

The effects of this transformation are already being felt. The influx of new residents brings social and economic benefits, while new digital capabilities are enhancing the experience of visitors. The Charterhouse is adopting a "phygital" methodology to support cultural enjoyment, using Huawei’s IdeaHub intelligent collaboration systems to bridge the gap between physical space and digital content.

"We want to ensure that innovation isn't limited by geography," says Fabio Romano of Huawei Italy. "By providing future-proof connectivity to sites like Padula, we aren't just installing hardware and software; we are enabling a new generation of talent to generate value and growth in their own communities. It is a model for how technology can give a second life to our national heritage."

Looking ahead, the Padula Charterhouse will serve as a testing ground for even more advanced services. This could include using AI avatars for personalized tours, augmented reality (AR) content and intelligent booking systems. These tools will make the site more accessible to a global audience while creating a local economy based on high-tech tourism and services.

For thousands of other historical sites around the world, Padula’s success proves that technological scalability does not have to come at the cost of cultural identity. It also serves as a reminder that tradition and innovation can co-exist, and that when a place is connected to the future, its history is preserved forever.