Deruta
Umbria tours
Deruta is a hill town and commune in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region of central Italy, near Tuscany.
Long known as a center of refined majolica manufacture, Deruta remains known for its ceramics, which are exported worldwide.
The historic town center features the Gothic Church of San Francesco built in 1388, and the Palazzetto Municipale (Town Hall), which dates from about 1300, located on the Piazza dei Consoli (the “Square of the Consuls”). In addition to the usual governmental offices, the municipal hall houses a Museum of Ceramics, an art gallery (the Pinacoteca), and a capacious atrium in which one can view a variety of archaeological finds, some of which date to Neolithic times.
The art gallery’s holdings consist of a fresco by Perugino, depicting San Romano and San Rocco (1476), and the collection donated by a local patron, Lione Pascoli, which includes works by Niccolò di Liberatore, called Alunno, Giovan Battista Gaulli, Sebastiano Conca, Francesco Trevisani, Antonio Amorosi, Francesco Graziani and Pieter Van Bloemen. The gallery also houses works received from various Deruta churches including San Francesco, Sant’ Antonio, the Defunti di Ripabianca and the Ospedale San Giacomo.
The Church of Sant’Antonio, with frescoes by Bartolommeo and Giovanni Battista Caporali, rises at the end of a narrow street, Via Mastro Giorgio. Another church worth seeing is the Madonna del Divino Amore on Piazza Cavour.
Along the Tiberina road, at the foot of the old town, yet another church, the Madonna delle Piagge, is clad in a colorful array of ceramic tiles.
Deruta was the birthplace of Girolamo Diruta, an organist, music theorist, and composer.
0 Comments