Deruta, Italian Ceramics

The origins of deruta date back to antiquity. Some archeaeological discoveries prove that there had been a settlement  there during the bronze Age. From the end of the Western Roman Empire the fate of deruta was much the same as the ruling Perugia. The Strategical position of deruta has favoured commerce, especially that of ceramics made here in large quantities since Antiquity. Only in 1465 did deruta obtain its legislative independence from the dominating city, Perugia. during those years Pietro Vannucci called "Il Perugino", painted the fresco in the church of Sain Francis represeting St. Rocco and St. Romano. From a the middle of the sixteenth century deruta benefited from a long period of rather balanced social and economic peace. At the beginning of the 19° century deruta chose Napoleonic politics by reorganising its administration. The restoration of the Pontifical governement in 1814 was welcomed by the citizens until the Unification of Italy.
In 1872, an exibition-competition of the local manufacturers was the first step fowards the modernisation and the extension of Ceramics production, still the principal resource of Deruta today.