Discovering Vietri Sul Mare: the pottery and the Museum

Filippo Cluverio, Renaissance geographer, wrote in 1642 about a city in Campania: «This city is Marcina, but it called Veteri by the locals». The name comes from an ancient city that was former there (“urban vetus” means “old city” in latin). We are talking about the beautiful Vietri Sul Mare (Vietri On The Sea), in the middle of Salerno Gulf, at the eastern side of Amalfi Coast. Vietri’s history is very old, back to the Etrurscans and the Sunnis, before it became an important Roman harbor.

You can not ignore the historical side of the city when you visit it, because one of the traditional activity of Vietri, the pottery art, is still today a main part of Vietri’s economy. Just take a look to the steeple of the San Giovanni Battista Church and you will see a beautiful example Vietri’s potteries, that cover the steeple’s cusp. The steeple dominates the city landscape, between the green of the hinterland and the blue of sea, symbol of an ancient tradition still alive today.

An immortal tradition

Let’s go back for a moment to the history of Vietri to better understand the pottery tradition. Until 1806, Vietri’s history was linked to Cava de’ Tirreni, another small city near Salerno. Marina di Vietri (that was Vietri’s name back then) was Cava de’ Tirreni’s commercial harbor, mostly used for businesses with Salerno. Vietri is pretty young as an autonomous city, but it has always had a strong identity during the centuries.

One of Vietri’s people credits is that they allowed their tradition to be influenced (in a positive way) by others. The result is a unique and highly appreciated final product. One of the most peculiar examples is the influence of Germany during World War II. After the Allies’ landing, a lot of Germans decided to stay in Vietri, charmed by the weather and by the Mediterranean lifestyle. They were very expert chemists and they used their knowledge on the pottery art, creating unique colors and shades, like the famous “Vietri’s yellow”.

The Pottery Museum

If you want to go deeper into the pottery tradition, you can visit the beautiful Pottery Museum in Raito, near Vietri. The Museum was officialy founded in 1981, and it tries to reconstruct the pottery tradition from the beginning, which seems to be in the 15th century: there are some papers that tell about the production of terracotta bowls. From that moment, Vietri’s history has always been linked with pottery production and today Vietri is considered on the main centers in the world for the production of artistic and traditional pottery.

The traditional decorations are about an Arcadian lifestyle, with shepherds, countrysides, homesteads and animals for the woods. Another typical theme is Vietri’s landscape, very unique in the contrast between the mountains and the sea, that usually are very far one from another, but here they coexist making this territory even more beautiful.

Walking in Vietri, you will find craftsmen working in their shops, keeping on a tradition that is still today a fascinating element for everyone visiting Vietri.

The Pottery Museum takes place inside Villa Guariglia, owned in the past by Raffaele Guariglia, Italian ambassador and secretary of state of Badoglio’s government. Most of the pottery in the Museum is from Vietri, but you can admire also potteries from other places in Campania as well as from Puglia, Calabria and Liguria.

The entrance is free and the Museum is open every days except Mondays. For any further information, visit the website.