A monastery called La Cartuja de Aula Dei is situated in the Spanish town of Zaragoza. Originally belonging to the order of the cartujos, it transitioned to housing a Community of the Chemin Neuf in 2011. On February 16, 1983, it was designated a National Monument, and it continues to be of considerable cultural interest today. It is situated on the Peaflor de Gállego highway.

With the support and encouragement of Hernando de Aragón, the archbishop of Zaragoza and nephew of the Catholic Reyes, he obtained the foundational permission in 1563. A small community of nine cartujos was established in 1563 in the Juan de Alagón tower, which also housed an oratory.

After studying the Catalan and Valencian cartujas, Hernando de Aragón charged the teachers Martn de Mileza and Miguel de Riglos with creating the plans for the new cenobium. The first stone was laid by the archbishop on February 29, 1564, and it took ten years to complete. The house suffered a little fire and wasn't finished when people moved in at the end of 1567.

The napoleonic decree banning convents was implemented during the War for Independence in 1809, turning Aula Dei into a cuartel before the Cartuja community returned in 1814.

The building was de-mortgaged in 1835, becoming private property, and the cartujs abandoned it. The cartujan community returned to Aula Dei in 1903.

Given the few remaining cartujos, they decided to relocate to Porta Coeli Cartuja in the Valencian province in 2011 and trust another community to continue the monastery's spiritual mission. Members of the Chemin Neuf Community moved into the building in February 2012. With the departure of the Aula Dei cartujes, there are now just three active monasteries in Spain: Miraflores, Porta Coeli, and Montalegre.

The entire monastic complex adheres to a fundamentally renacentist, amurallado-style monastic code. Interiorly, the dependent buildings are arranged around three patios surrounded with claustrophobic plants. The entrance to the inn (from 1671) and the search line an enclosed space. From this point on, the so-called monastery develops, forming a rectangular design with the church at its centre. After this, there is a large opening that leads to the 36 celdas, which are little houses each with a chapel, bedroom, dining area, office, living room, greenhouse, terrace, and solana. The cemetery, which is bordered by cipreses, is located in the middle of that building's patio. The two smaller cloisters, one with chapels for private and communal prayer, are located on either side of the church. These smaller cloisters also house the refectory, capitular room, and library. These doors open to the patio through carpenter's panelling in the walls, and they are covered with star-shaped crossbeams.

The church is a single, three-story vessel covered in star-shaped cruiser sails decorated with domed wood classes created by Miguel Cabanas. Has mensulas adorned with Hernando de Aragón's escudos. It has a very difficult to pronounce crucero. Following the abside is the baroque santo-santorum chapel, which is covered by an ornately decorated crow's foot.

The torre was built in 1682 and is a baroque work of three cuadrated cubes, the second of which has one midpoint arch on each side. The third body is octagonal and wraps around a bulbous chapitel.

The interior features works like the rococo-painted mural that depicts the Ascension of Mary between San Bruno and San Juan Bautista and was created by zaragozano sculptor Manuel Ramrez de Arellano (who was "donado" of the Cartuja) in 1770.

The entire church was decorated in the 18th century, and it features a collection of oil paintings on canvas painted by Francisco de Goya in 1774 that were severely damaged during the 19th-century cenobitic abandonments and were initially restored at the beginning of the 20th.

Since the Community of the Chemin Neuf's arrival at their monastery in 2012, it has been possible to learn about the artwork and history that are kept there. On Saturdays at 12 o'clock, you can do it on your own without making reservations, or you can do it in groups of at least 20 people by making reservations.

The San Bruno Order's rules forbid the entry of outsiders into its monastic enclosures; even the ingress of monks' relatives is strictly regulated. This made it difficult to appreciate these works of art up until the present. When the government of Aragón decided to organise visits to the Aula Dei frescoes in 1996 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Goya's birth, the religious order's refusal to permit the entry of women sparked a heated debate. The citizen-led government made it possible for a settlement agreement to be signed on January 19th, 1998, ending the conflict. Permitió los visitantes (hombres y mujeres) acceder por medio de un pasadizo durante los ocho das de cada ao (el ltimo sábado de cada mes).

The first female to enter the papal rectorate without a papal bulwark was Queen Sofia, who did so on November 11, 1998, with the help of the monks, through the main monastery door. Only three women, all wearing papal robes, had previously visited the cartuja: the infant Isabel in 1913, the restauratrice Teresa Grasa in 1978, and the judicial secretary Inés Lafuente in 1995.

Long waiting lists for the Aula Dei paintings prompted local groups to request an expansion of the visiting hours and to affirm that the agreement between the Aragonian government and the Cartuja adheres to the law of Aragonese cultural heritage, which states in its Article 54 that the minimum number of visits that property owners of patrimonial assets must establish is four per month.