Ceramics - Piemonte Feel

Piedmont exports the warmth and beauty of ceramics all over the world.
Castellamonte stoves, made of cast iron and covered with textured, kiln-fired ceramic tiles, are much in demand from architects all over the world. Each stove is uniquely beautiful, almost an authentic work of art in your own living room, and efficiently provides natural clean heat.
These stoves are the result of thousands of years of traditional craftsmanship. In fact, the history of the human race can be read through the development of ceramics, as in every age ceramics provide a record of the cultural level of the society. In Piedmont the first traces of the production of vessels in terracotta date back to three thousand years ago, and this valuable and ancient tradition is still kept alive today. Castellamonte, a city 50 kilometres from Turin, has been one of the most active centres producing ceramics since the Middle Ages. This is mainly because near the city there are plentiful supplies of clay, which gives Castellamonte pottery its characteristic red colouring. Every year since 1960, the ceramics fair in September and October has provided a showcase for local artists, as well as displaying the work of craftsmen from the rest of Italy and abroad.
Mondovì is another town in Piedmont renowned for its ceramics, the classic plates with a cock motif in a distinctive cobalt blue, while the Ossola Valley is famous for its blue and brown painted pottery (known as Kamàres).