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Deruta

The city is situated 15 kilometres south of Perugia on a hill that overlooks the valley of the Tiber; the new part extends along the Via Tiberina, parallel to the E-45 Road which goes towards Rome.
Of the ancient castle remain some tracts of wall, the arches of the three doors to the city and the characteristic medieval streets which lead into the Piazza dei Consoli. At the Piazza is the Palazzo dei Consoli, today the town hall, whose 14th century tower is adorned by Romanesque mullioned windows.
The town hall houses the ceramics museum, where beautiful local antique majolica are exhibited, and the picture gallery with priceless paintings of various periods: a painting by Niccolò Alunno from 1458; a banner of S. Antonio Abate by the same artist; a Madonna with Child and Saints by the School of Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino; paintings by Amorosi; by Gaulli, known as Baciccio; by Reni; by Graziani, known as Ciccio Napoletano; an illuminated missal of the 14th century; altar-cloths of the 15th century.
Furthermore, there is a fresco of the Saints Rocco and Rornano with a view of the town (1476) recently attributed to Perugino.
Opposite the town hall rises the Romanesque-Gothic Church of S. Francesco with the adjacent convent where Pope Urban IV died on October 2, 1264. The 14th century bell-tower has ogival mullioned windows. The interior, made up of one nave with polygonal apse, contains numerous 14th century frescoes by the Senese school.
Especially notable on the left side of the altar is the martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria (1339), protesters of Deruta's ceramists who is celebrated every year on the 25th of November, and another fresco with the Madonna, Child and Saints by Domenico Alfani. In the nearby Piazza Benincasa stands the Church of S. Antonio Abate, in which one may admire a Madonna of Mercy with St. Francis and St. Bernard by Bartolomeo Caporali, and a fresco by Bartolomeo and G.B. Caporali featuring four scenes from the life of St. Anthony which draw their inspiration from Signorelli's frescoes of the Chapel of S. Brizio in the Cathedral of Orvieto. On the high altar is a 15th century statue of St. Antony in polychrome ceramics.
The city is world-famous for its ceramic art, which dates back to the Middle Ages. The oldest and most important commissioned works date back to the 13th century. But the greatest development was reached by the masters of Deruta beginning from the early 16th century. Thanks to the ever-growing fame of Deruta's ceramists, their workshops were entrusted with the execution of the floorings of the Chapel of the Palazzo dei Priori and of the Sacristy of the Basilica of S. Pietro in Perugia, and of the Baglioni Chapel in Spello. In the civic museum of Deruta one may admire priceless remnants of the flooring of the Church of S. Francesco (1523-24).
Since then Deruta's ceramics have become famous for their decorative patterns and shapes. These vases, plates and other objects are exhibited in some of the world's greatest museums as examples of remarkable pictorial quality.
Among the best known ceramic masters from Deruta are: Giacomo Mancini, known as "El Frate" (1545); Andrea di Cecco (1584), Lazzaro di Battista Faentino, Francesco Urbini, Gregorio Caselli (1770) and a certain "Paolo da Deruta" who in 1516 worked under the great ceramist Mastro Giorgio Andreoli from Gubbio.
A unique documentation of Deruta's ceramics is kept in the Church of Madonna dei Bagni, which is 2 kilometres south of Deruta along the E-45 Road.
The walls of the church are covered with votive ceramic tiles offered by believers from the 17th century until the present. In an extraordinary array of polychrome panels the visitor can follow the uninterrupted flow of Deruta's ceramic tradition, and what's more, have a view of Umbrian and Italian life during the last three centuries.
Today the production of artistic ceramics still constitutes the main activity of the town. With over 200 majolica workshops and stores as well as a State School for Ceramic Arts, Deruta faithfully continues its historic artistic traditions.