The Chartreux is one of the oldest cat breeds, with origins believed to lie in the mountainous regions of Turkey and Iran. It is thought to have been brought to France from the Orient by Crusaders returning from the Holy Land.
The earliest mentions of blue-grey cats in France date back to the sixteenth century. In 1558, the poet Joachim du Bellay wrote a poem titled Vers Français sur la mort d'un petit chat, referring to his grey cat. However, the name "Chartreux" did not appear until 1723, when Jacques Savary des Brûlons mentioned it in his Dictionnaire universel de commerce. Another reference to the Chartreux can be found in Linnaeus's Systema Naturae of 1735, where he described it as Catus coeruleus (the blue cat), classifying it as a distinct species.
In the modern era, organised breeding of the Chartreux began in the 1930s, thanks to Christine and Suzanne Léger, who started breeding blue cats on the French island of Belle-Île-en-Mer. Their cat Nora was declared "the most beautiful Chartreux in the world" at the Paris cat show. At the same time, a separate line of blue cats was being developed in the French Massif Central region, showing slightly different physical traits and a more robust build compared to their Atlantic counterparts.
After the Second World War, the number of both Chartreux and blue British Shorthair cats declined sharply. This led to extensive crossbreeding between the two breeds, until the FIFe (Fédération Internationale Féline) decided to merge them under a single shared standard. However, in the 1970s, through the efforts of Jean Simonnet and other French breeders, the FIFe reversed this decision and once again recognised the two breeds as distinct, prohibiting further crossbreeding.
In Italy, the first Chartreux cats were introduced by Giorgio Tonelli. Following thorough research in France, he brought Cervin and Electron de Labelrousse to Italy. In 1988, their union with Caterina di Gioel produced the first Italian-born litter of Chartreux kittens.