Petroio has stood out for many centuries for the production of terracotta articles and for that figure of the potter who in these places has taken on the role of guardian of art and culture. This is why it hosts the Terracotta Museum, created to show and communicate the active intertwining between past and present, between craftsmanship and design.
Inside the Petroio Terracotta Museum, in fact, the continuity between ancient techniques is illustrated, rendered with interesting reconstructions of the quarry in which the clay is extracted and of the workshop in which they work with the typical oven, and of recent methods, with the possibility of visiting the concai plants in the area.
The objects are offered not as part of collections, but as an expression of a complex social and productive world, evidenced by large photographic panels, videos, short texts that report passages of oral testimonies. The conservativeness of some shapes, such as the hollows once used above all for laundry and now for lemon trees, dialogues with the innovation of modern design, building a bridge between past and present, between traditional and innovative shapes.
At the end of the exhibition, it is also possible to visit other spaces including an educational laboratory for the manipulation of clay where, with the help of museum operators, the artifacts are shaped and baked in an oven. Finally, a special space is dedicated to temporary exhibitions with the function of broadening the discussion on terracotta, emphasizing the plasticity of the material and showing its potential for artistic expression.