| The ceramics museum in Cutrofiano is currently residing in some rooms belonging to the Town Council Library, where they have about 500 exhibits, including objects belonging to peasant culture and local craftwork. Set up in 1985 as a simple collection of terracotta products made by local craftsmen, it has grown through donations of fine majolica ware and most especially archaeological finds, mostly clay, from the area surrounding the town and the wider area of Salento. The exhibition is divided up into four sections. In the first ceramic material from Cutrofiano and its immediate neighbourhood, is organised chronologically, from pre-history to modern day. The second section has glazed and varnished pottery produced in Cutrofiano, and from other towns in Puglia and in southern Italy. The third section includes clay objects, glazed and unglazed, produced almost exclusively in Cutrofiano during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. You can see nearly all of the objects used daily by the peasant population in careful reconstructions of household rooms. In the fourth section, of an ethno-anthropological nature, there are tools and other objects used for producing ceramics on display, salvaged from the vanished workshops of Cutrofiano. |