The pottery workshops around the bishop's castle
East of Taranto, Grottaglie has been one of the most important centres of ceramics in southern Italy since the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the caves (grotte) of the ravines around the town, where the first potters set up their kilns, using the local clay. Its Quartiere delle Ceramiche, the ceramics quarter, is a district of workshops carved partly into the rock, along the Gravina di San Giorgio, where dozens of potters still work, with kilns, wheels and pieces drying in the sun along the lanes.
Grottaglie pottery includes everyday objects of the peasant tradition, such as the "capasoni", large jars for wine and oil, the "pumi", bud-shaped ornaments placed on balconies as a symbol of good luck and fertility, the "pupe", dolls, and the "gallucci", cockerels, together with modern artistic ceramics. The district is dominated by the Castello Episcopio, a fourteenth century castle built by the archbishops of Taranto, which houses the Museum of Ceramics, with hundreds of pieces from antiquity to today. Every year in summer the town hosts a contemporary ceramics competition, and at Christmas the "Presepi in Ceramica" exhibition. Grottaglie also has an airport used for the testing of drones and space flights.
Tip: many workshops let you watch the potters at work and sell directly; the "pumo" is a typical Apulian souvenir.
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