ONDA

The Ceramic Legacy of Onda

Onda is, quite literally, a city of taulell: a place where ceramic tiles have shaped the economy, the urban landscape, and collective memory. The local commitment to preserving this legacy is embodied in the Manolo Safont Tile Museum, heir to the museum founded in 1968 and reopened in 2004, which houses one of the largest collections of Valencian architectural ceramics. Its holdings—estimated by the museum itself at around 80,000 pieces—span from classical tilework to Modernism and the 20th-century ceramic industry, and also include machinery and archives that tell the story of “how it was made.”

The Ceramic Soul of Onda

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Historic Center

The old town, declared a Historic–Artistic Ensemble, preserves outstanding examples of applied ceramic decoration.…

Ceramic Promenade

One kilometer of open-air ceramic installations featuring more than 150 flowerpots decorated by students, families, and local artists.…

Tile Museum

The “Manolo Safont” Tile Museum preserves, as the result of extensive preservation work since its founding in 1968, outstanding collections of Valencian architectural ceramic tiles.…

Techniques and Color Palette

The ceramic DNA of Onda lies in architectural tilework: reliefs, molds, devotional panels, and claddings that adorned façades, interiors, and roofs. Its technical tradition moves from red to white clay bodies, with brush-painted decoration (blues, greens, and manganese), stamping, printing, and Modernist techniques. In the 18th–19th centuries, tilemaking expanded, and by the 20th century the local industry scaled up both production and range. The museum explains this evolution through historical galleries and a strong collection of industrial ethnology—machines, tools, and archives—that contextualizes the shift from workshop to factory.

History and Traditions

Here, ceramics take to the streets: tiled plinths, small ceramic shrines, sotabalcons, and panels narrate faith, trade, and everyday life. Although today the in situ heritage is selective, the city continues to create and reinterpret its identity through installations and educational programs—from the classroom to the neighborhood—that once again place tilemaking in the hands of residents and visitors.