Caltagirone

Caltagirone stands on high ground in southeastern Sicily, a town long famed for its pottery. Local clay supplied workshops making vessels, tiles and painted maiolica, whose products travelled beyond the town. The streets and churches occupy a series of slopes, joining the older settlement to the surrounding countryside.

By the sixteenth century many potters worked in Caltagirone, and members of the craft carried their skills to other Sicilian towns, including the town of Burgio in the west of the island. The earthquake of 1693 devastated eastern Sicily and destroyed much of the town and its ceramic work. Rebuilding brought new churches and palaces, while the potters' craft continued to give Caltagirone a distinctive place among the towns of the Val di Noto.