Remodelled on several occasions, most of the present complex - formally, the Real Cartuja de Jesus de Nazaret (Mon-Sat 9.30am-6pm, Sun 10am-1pm; Nov-Feb Mon-Sat closes 4.30pm; €7.80) - is of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century construction, its square and heavy church leading to the shadowy corridors of the cloisters beyond. The monastery owes its present fame almost entirely to the novelist and republican polemicist George Sand , who, with her companion, the composer Frederic Chopin , lived here for four months in 1838-39. Just three years earlier the last monks had been evicted during the liberal-inspired suppression of the monasteries, so the pair were able to rent a commodious set of vacant cells. Their stay is commemorated in Sand's A Winter in Majorca , a stodgy, self-important book that is considerably overplayed hereabouts, being available in just about every European language.

A visit begins in the gloomy, aisleless church , which is distinguished by its fanciful bishop's throne, though the lines of the nave are spoiled by the clumsy wooden stalls of the choir. In the adjoining cloisters, the first port of call is the pharmacy , which survived the expulsion of the monks to serve the town's medicinal needs well into the twentieth century. Its shelves are crammed with a host of beautifully decorated majolica jars, antique glass receptacles and painted wood boxes, each carefully inscribed with the name of the potion or drug. The nearby prior's cell is, despite its name, a comfortable suite of bright, sizeable rooms with splendid views down the valley. It's also, together with the adjoining library and audience room, the proud possessor of a wide assortment of religious objets d'art . Further along the corridor, cell no. 2 exhibits miscellaneous curios relating to Chopin and Sand, from portraits and a lock of hair to musical scores and letters (it was in this cell that the composer wrote the Raindrop Prelude ). There's more of the same next door in cell no. 4 , plus Chopin's piano, which arrived only after three months of unbelievable complications - and just three weeks before the couple left for Paris. Considering the hype, these incidental mementoes are something of an anticlimax, but persevere: upstairs, there's a small but outstanding collection of modern art , including work by Miro and Picasso, not to mention Francis Bacon and Henry Moore. And be sure also to take the doorway beside the prior's cell, which leads outside the cloisters to the enjoyable Palace of King Sancho . It's not the original palace at all - that disappeared long ago - but it is the oldest part of the complex and its fortified walls, mostly dating from the sixteenth century, accommodate a string of handsome period rooms.