Fornace Grazia

The Antica Fornace Grazia is a surviving historic kiln in Deruta's borgo, near Porta San Michele Arcangelo. Its vertical chambers show how maiolica was fired in a wood-burning furnace; the Grazia family's production in Deruta began in the first decades of the sixteenth century.

Why it matters

The Antica Fornace Grazia preserves a historic kiln within Deruta’s old town. The structure preserves the vertical arrangement of a traditional furnace: a combustion chamber below, a barrel vault pierced by square apertures and upper chambers where glazed wares were stacked.

What to notice

The ground-floor combustion chamber has a barrel vault with square apertures through which heat rose to the upper floors. During firing, the openings were sealed to contain heat, leaving a small hole through which the kiln worker watched the flame and drew out test pieces with iron tongs. The upper chambers show the scale of a firing. The distinction between the historic furnace in the borgo and the Grazia family's larger 1924 plant below town traces the changing production of Deruta maiolica.

Context and history

The Grazia family's maiolica production began in the first decades of the sixteenth century. In December 1769 Bastiano Grazia bought the premises used as a furnace; in 1824, under Giuseppe Grazia, it was one of only three kilns still active in town. The municipality restored the historic kiln and gave it a public role. Together with excavated kilns in the Regional Museum of Ceramics, it preserves evidence of the architecture of traditional firing.