Deruta
is situated 15 km south of Perugia on a hill that overlooks the valley of the
Tiber. The new town extends along the Via Tiberina, parallel to the E-45 Road which goes towards Rome.
Some of the walls of the ancient fortress remain, together with the arches of the three doors to the city and the
mediaeval streets which lead into the Piazza dei Consoli. The Palazzo dei Consoli, today the town hall, whose 14th century tower is adorned by Romanesque mullioned
windows, is located in P.zza dei Consoli. The town hall houses the ceramics
museum where beautiful local antique majolica
is exhibited. An excellent picture gallery houses a painting by Niccolò Alunno from
1458, a banner of S. Antonio Abate by the same artist, a Madonna with Child and Saints
from the School of Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino, paintings by
Amorosi,; by Gaulli, known as Baciccio, by Reni, by Graziani, known as Ciccio
Napoletano, an illuminated missal of the 14th century, and altar-cloths of the 15th century.
There is also a fresco of Saints Rocco and Rornano with a view of the town (1476), recently attributed to
Perugino.
Opposite the town hall rises the Romanesque-Gothic Church of S. Francesco with the adjacent convent where Pope Urban IV died on October 2, 1264. The 14th century bell-tower has ogival mullioned windows. The interior, made up of one nave with polygonal apse, contains numerous 14th century frescoes
of the Sienese school. On the left side of the altar there is a martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria (1339),
protector of Deruta's ceramicists, whose saint's day is the 25th of November, and another fresco with the Madonna, Child and Saints by Domenico
Alfani.
In the nearby Piazza Benincasa stands the Church of S. Antonio Abate, housing a Madonna of Mercy with St. Francis and St. Bernard by
Bartolomeo Caporali, and a fresco by Bartolomeo and G.B. Caporali featuring four scenes from the life of St. Anthony.
The latter draw their inspiration from Signorelli's frescoes in the Chapel of S. Brizio in the Cathedral of Orvieto. On the high altar
there is a 15th century statue of St. Antony in polychrome ceramics.
Deruta is world-famous for its ceramic art, which dates back to the Middle Ages. The oldest and most important commissioned works date back to the 13th
century, but the highest level of development was achieved by the masters of Deruta beginning
in the early 16th century. Thanks to the ever-growing fame of Deruta's ceramicists, their workshops were entrusted with the execution of the
pavements of the Chapel of the Palazzo dei Priori and of the Sacristy of the Basilica of S. Pietro in Perugia, and of the Baglioni Chapel in Spello. In the civic museum of Deruta
there are remnants of the flooring of the Church of S. Francesco (1523-24).
Among the best known ceramic masters from Deruta are: Giacomo Mancini, known as "El
Frate" (1545), Andrea di Cecco (1584), Lazzaro di Battista Faentino, Francesco Urbini, Gregorio Caselli (1770) and a certain "Paolo da Deruta" who in 1516 worked under the great
ceramicist Mastro Giorgio Andreoli from Gubbio.
Unique documentation of Deruta's ceramics is displayed in the Church of Madonna dei Bagni, which is 2
km south of Deruta along the E-45 Road. The walls of the church are covered with votive ceramic tiles offered by
the faithful from the 17th century until the present. In an extraordinary array of polychrome panels the visitor can follow the uninterrupted flow of Deruta's ceramic tradition, and what's more, have a view of Umbrian and Italian life during the last three centuries.
Today the production of artistic ceramics still constitutes the main activity of the town. With over 200 majolica workshops and
shops as well as a State School for Ceramic Arts, Deruta faithfully continues its historic artistic traditions.