Caltagirone: The Sicilian town adorned with ceramics

Caltagirone is one of the eight towns of southeastern Sicily, known as the baroque town of the Val di Noto. These eight towns were almost entirely destroyed and rebuilt after the earthquake of of 1693 that shook the southeastern part of Sicily to its core. Caltagirone is classified as a UNESCO world heritage site. The city of Caltagirone is one of the most interesting inland Sicilian destinations purged on three different hills. It became famous for the quality and sophistication of its ceramics. Ceramics you can see in the picture below are just some of the fine examples of ceramics you would see if you visit the town of Caltagirone.

Caltagirone known as the city of ceramics has several churches, colleges and convents that are all embellished with different and beautiful ceramics. Ceramic production in Caltagirone is a millennium old tradition, making the town one of the most important ceramic production centers of Sicily and renowned in the entire Mediterranean.

Who has never heard of the staircase of Santa Maria del monte and Caltagirone? It's the famous staircase (la Scalinata in Italian). The staircase of Santa Maria del monte is a masterpiece of art, architecture and culture. The staircase was built in the early 1600s to connect the ancient part of the Calderone town with the new one being built at the time, which was the highest part of the city. These 142 steps contain all the essence of local craftsmanship and mastery with each and every one of these steps embellished with exquisite ceramics that are produced in the same town. In 1956 a polychrome majolica covering was placed on each elevation reproducing the motifs used by the Sicilian majolica makers from the 10th to the 20th century. Majolica is a richly colored, heavyweight clay pottery that is coated with enamel, ornamented with paints, and, finally, glazed.

The staircase can be divided into 10 sections! There is a sector for each century, starting with the tent each consisting of 14 steps. There are steps with different majolica styles namely Arabic Norman, Swabian from the Spanish era, from the Chiaramonte renaissance baroque era 18th and 19th century and even contemporary.

The pottery decorations seemed to be inspired to the splendid art of weaving and to the Sicilian embroidery. Ceramic tradition of Caltagirone is also visible in other parts of the historic center in its numerous churches palaces the majolica bridge of San Francisco as well as in the public garden known by the locals as villa. The most iconic objects however must be the infamous heads of culture which exist in different versions representing three of the subsequent empires which ruled over Sicily these empires are namely the Byzantines, the Arabs and the Normans. This art comes from a long tradition of ancient work handed down over the centuries

Each and every single artefact is unique because each piece is rigorously handmade. We just have few handpicked items in our shop which you can visit by clicking here..