Ceramics in Faenza have a centuries-old tradition and represent the main identity trait for the city.
Faenza’s ceramic art has accompanied the town’s development, has affected the architectural styles, moulded the artistic, craft and industrial products, influencing and orientating the taste of the citizens.
Ceramic art, as a cultural and identity root of Faenza, is a crucial element of a development path that creates a connection among the artistic excellence of the past and the current applications of ceramics, not only in art and design, but also in the technological and industrial fields, in urban art and in advanced research.
Due to the nature of the territory, rich in clays suitable for moulding, and its strategic geographic position, the city has established itself as a ceramic centre of primary importance since the first centuries after 1000 AD. Faenza reached the peak of its artistic and technical fame in the 16th Century during the Renaissence age, with its elegant “Whites of Faenza”, that excelled in ceramic art and technique. They influenced potters not only in Italy but also abroad.
Since then Faenza has become, all over the Western World, the City of Ceramics par excellence, so much as its name in the French translation Faïence indicates Ceramic Art. The tradition and culture of ceramics remains the vital hub of modern Faenza with its International Ceramics Museum containing splendid collections from all centuries and countries, its 60 artists’ workshops, the artistic and technical schools, its international events based on the traditional and contemporary production of majolica.
Precious neoclassical architecture, elegant shops, fine restaurants both in the centre and in the green hills surrounding the city make Faenza a perfect example of the best Italian lifestyle where art, creativity, innovation and research meets landscape, history and clay.
