Umbrian ceramics
A few kilometres south of Perugia, along the Tiber valley, Deruta is one of the most famous centres of Italian ceramics, with a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. Since the fourteenth century, its potters have produced plates, vases, jugs and tiles in majolica, glazed and painted earthenware, and in the Renaissance, between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Deruta reached its golden age, with workshops that sold all over Europe and the invention of extraordinary techniques, such as the famous lustre, a metallic iridescent glaze, gold or ruby-coloured, which gives the pieces a shimmering, precious reflection. The "piatti da pompa", large decorative plates with portraits of beautiful women, saints and coats of arms, were among the most admired works of the time.
Today Deruta is a town of ceramics, with dozens of workshops and shops along the main road and in the historic centre, where you can watch the artisans at work, turning, painting and firing, and buy plates, tableware, tiles and objects in the traditional styles, with decorations such as the "raffaellesco", inspired by Raphael's grotesques, or the "arabesco". The Museo Regionale della Ceramica, founded in 1898 in the former convent of San Francesco, is the oldest ceramics museum in Italy and displays thousands of pieces from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, including masterpieces of lustreware. Just outside the town, the small church of the Madonna dei Bagni is unique: its walls are covered with over six hundred ex-voto majolica tiles, painted by the faithful from the seventeenth century onwards in thanks for graces received, a moving and colourful gallery of popular life.
Tip: visit a workshop to see the hand painting; the church of the Madonna dei Bagni is about two kilometres south of the town.
Where it is
More things to see in Umbria
Where to stay near Deruta
Tours and activities nearby
Offers from GetYourGuide. Some links are affiliate links: if you book we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.