A place of prayer, the Chartreuse de la Verne was built on a rocky outcrop at an altitude of 1,394 ft (425 m) in the vast Maures forest. The construction of the complex's buttresses and high ramparts did not aim to transform the site, already well protected by its isolation, into a stronghold. It rather intended to obtain a sufficiently flat surface for the implantation of the various buildings that form the monastery. The ramparts and buttresses nevertheless contributed to limiting external intrusions between the 12th and 18th centuries.