Ipogeo Fornace Medievale

Beneath the houses of Via Cava in Taranto, the Ipogeo Fornace Medievale preserves the remains of a pottery workshop. Three kiln floors cut into the rock and nearby basins for settling clay record a craft quarter active in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Why it matters

The kiln gives physical form to Via Cava's medieval role as a centre of production. The workshop made everyday ceramics, mostly lead-glazed vessels, connecting an underground space to the daily needs of the old city. Its remains also show how craft activity occupied the rock-cut spaces beneath Taranto's historic streets.

What to notice

The three firing structures survive as support floors rather than complete kilns. Nearby basins are associated with settling and refining clay before it was shaped. Together, these features preserve parts of the production process even though the chambers and equipment themselves are gone.

Context and history

The workshop belongs to a wider district where several kilns operated, some associated with religious orders that held property in the quarter. The municipal account dates this kiln to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and records that most kilns in Via Cava ceased operating in the sixteenth century, as ceramic production shifted towards the Porta Napoli area. The surviving chamber is one part of a broader underground landscape of workshops and other spaces beneath the old city.