•    Rocca Calascio – a fort worth a walk to
  The Silence of Ocre Castle, L’Aquila

• • Castelli – Love it or Loathe it…

  

  A short drive from Bascianella, on one of the roads over the mountains to just under Mount Camicia, is the hillside town of Castelli, home to one of  Italy’s most well-known crafts – ‘Castelli’.

  A type of ceramic, ‘Castelli’ is one of those art forms (like English cottage-ware and glass animals) that seems to provoke conflicting reactions from people despite this bright and colourful ceramic type being so hugely popular throughout Europe in the 16th & 18th centuries.

  Majolica is the name given to pottery with clear coloured glazes.  Its defining characteristic is the tin glaze that gives these ceramics a brilliant white, opaque surface to paint on.  The paints themselves are applied as metallic oxides onto the unfired glaze and which absorbs the pigments like a fresco and preserves their intensity.  Castelli ceramics then require 2 more wood firings to preserve their characteristic ‘pentacromia’  (5 colours – yellow, green, blue, orange and manganese brown) portrayals of  flowers, plants, landscapes, the sun, moon, coats of arms, icons etc.

  Commissions throughout the centuries by some of Italy’s most important nobles such as the Orsini, Farnese & Aragona families ensured the reputation of Castelli’s ceramics was maintained. The hill-town of Castelli is now one of the main tourist attractions of Abruzzo,  particularly for the 13th century church of San Donato (which we have not been to yet admittedly) featuring the majolic altarpiece by Francesco Grue and a ceiling comprised of multicoloured ceramic tiles bearing designs & devices, and the Castelli ceramic museum located just outside the town in the cloisters of a convent.

  However, most interesting from our limited experience is simply visiting many of the innumerable shops and studios selling the majolica ware in and around the town itself. There is a certain amount of repetition in the designs but they are still fascinating in their diversity and sheer numbers!

  Pastoral/bucolic scenes vie for shelf-space with iconic images of astrological or religious nature and landscapes, on plates, tiles, vases & cups. Also available are the ceramic  light-shades (like giant’s shinpads) with vocational images which make excellent presents, for the professional in your life, and more contemporary designs leaning often towards geometric abstraction…

  Click here to view a slideshow of Castelli

  Like it? Share Life in Abruzzo & subscribe to our newsletter for updates

  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 
  • 

  About the Author
  

  Roddy Newlands is co-editor for lifeinabruzzo.com; he also helps deal with marketing & publicity for the website. What little time remains is spent as a rare books specialist for Bloomsbury Auctions and designer for the web marketing company webSEOlive. Abruzzo allows him to get his mountain-air fix, by foot or ski, or simply satisfy his passion for pasta & panettone.

  Posted in:  Historical Sites

  

  Related Information

  Places & Sights  Historical Sites Museums Churches Villages

  Prato Selva – Perfect not just for Skiing but Biking too San Giustino Cathedral, Chieti Santo Stefano di Sessanio

  ---

    Have your Say!
  
  One comment for “Castelli – Love it or Loathe it…”

  1. [...] its backbone (the Campo Rigopiano) taking this small Gran Sasso mountain pass road that runs up via Castelli, home of Abruzzo ceramics, ending at Castel del Monte – great for biscuits and cross country [...]

     Posted by Campo Imperatore Imperative | September 24, 2009, 4:22 pm
     

     ---

  Agree, disagree have a comment that you would like to add about this? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Post your comment, wait for it to be moderated and we'll send you an email as soon as it is live.

  Name *

  E-mail *

  Web site

  Comment

  

  Anti-spam word: (Required)*
  To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
  

  
  
  

Lost? Go back to the home page.