Caltagirone ceramics Sicilian capital

Caltagirone you can feel the Sicilian capital of ceramic art, to the point that it has become, over the years synonymous with the celebrated art form that eternal the pale, by green fields and blue sky colors based many beautiful creations in terracotta; not at all even his name (from Arabic Qal’ to Ghiran, or Fortress of Jars) It is linked to this wonderful form of figurative art, second in Italy probably just to Faenza.

The calatina artistic tradition has an illustrious past, already witnessed the Neolithic Age and the Greek, and then at the time of Arab domination; this tradition, around 1030, It was then stimulated by the presence of Genoese workers (the emblem of the city is still the one with the cross of St. George), while the various successive rulers have also had the merit to enrich the cultural and artistic heritage.

Today, Caltagirone to the tourist visiting the city primarily offers all its colors and its designs, its style and its prospects: that of Santa Maria del Monte staircase, the real living in the city, realized in 1953 to joint the bottom to the top where there is the old Mother Church, with its 142 steps decorated with colorful majolica tiles of different design and color; those of various ceramic panels, including precisely that on top of the aforementioned steps and that of Don Sturzo Gallery (the most famous person in the city); those of the various decorations of balustrades, portals and balconies, like the one of the largest public garden overlooking the Via Roma; those of the old theater where the eye sweeps over the surrounding landscape to Mount Etna; those round the music stage in the aforementioned public garden; those exquisitely evocative of floral Art Nouveau facade of Palazzo Buonaccorsi Friend; and finally those of the many workshops in which many young people (trained at the local Art Institute of Ceramics) They are busy every day alongside the older masters and best known in the realization of small and large multicolored masterpieces: plates and vases off the most picturesque forms, tiles and “cocci”, holy water fonts and figurines

The pottery tradition

I first potters back in the times of the ancient Greeks. For over two thousand years Caltagirone was privileged stronghold Byzantines, Arabs, Genoese and Normans, who controlled the Catania and of Gela. Today city ​​Caltagirone It is known worldwide not only for its traditional production of ceramics but also for the many architectural heritage which attract many visitors. Caltagirone is rich in churches, valuable buildings and eighteenth century villas.

Late Baroque Towns of the Val di Noto Palazzolo Acreide and Noto