Who We Are

ARTERRA is a network that brings together cities and towns across Spain with a ceramic soul—territories where the art of shaping the earth has been, for centuries, an essential part of life, identity, and landscape.

The network is led by the Spanish Association of Ceramic Cities (AeCC) and includes the participation of the city councils of Talavera de la Reina, Agost, Alba de Tormes, Bailén, La Bisbal d’Empordà, La Rambla, Manises, Mota del Cuervo, and Onda.
Together, they form a network of cities that share a common purpose: to preserve, value, and project ceramic culture as a living heritage—one that generates identity, creativity, and sustainable development.

ARTERRA is born from a shared desire to keep alive a heritage that unites us: transforming earth into art, culture, and everyday beauty.
Each city contributes its history, its workshops, its museums, and its artists; each preserves its own accent, color, and way of understanding ceramics.
Together, they form a fabric of places that breathe tradition, innovation, and local pride.

ARTERRA is the meeting point among them: a space where memory and contemporaneity intertwine to tell a collective story that continues to be shaped every day—by the hands, the earth, and the imagination of those who keep it alive.

In ARTERRA, ceramics become an experience to be lived, shared, and felt. Our purpose is to transform admiration for this age-old art into a way of discovering the places, people, and stories that give it life.

The project was born with a clear vision: to strengthen ceramics as a tourism, cultural, and creative experience—one capable of connecting cities, boosting local economies, and highlighting a heritage that continues to evolve. We want every visitor to discover how ceramics can be, at once, art, identity, innovation, and a point of encounter.

Through collaboration among municipalities, workshops, museums, artists, and local communities, ARTERRA promotes experiences that combine culture, tourism, and sustainability, reinforcing the connection between those who create and those who visit. We seek to preserve traditional crafts, improve accessibility to ceramic spaces, encourage the digitalization of heritage, and open new development opportunities for ceramic territories.

In addition, ARTERRA works to weave a collaborative network with all those establishments that add value to ceramics in their daily activity: restaurants that incorporate it into their cuisine, accommodations that integrate it into their identity, shops, design spaces, and construction projects that use ceramics as a distinctive element. Because ceramics are not only to be admired—they are used, lived in, and enjoyed as an essential part of everyday life.

The activities we promote reflect this broad and participatory approach. They include:

  • Cultural and tourist routes through the cities of the network, showcasing the diversity of styles, techniques, and traditions.
  • Hands-on workshops and creative experiences, where visitors can learn and create with their own hands.
  • Exhibitions, fairs, and thematic showcases that spread awareness of the artistic and heritage richness of ceramics.
  • Training and capacity-building initiatives aimed at artisans, guides, and tourism professionals.
  • Accessibility and sustainability projects in museums, cultural centers, and ceramic spaces.
  • Digital promotion and communication campaigns to raise the profile of the route and its ceramic experiences.
  • Collaborations with local businesses that integrate ceramics into fields such as gastronomy, hospitality, design, or construction.

Each of these actions is guided by a single goal: to make visible the value of ceramics as a cultural and tourism driver, connecting past and future, tradition and creativity. From artisanal practice to the traveler’s experience, ARTERRA promotes a new way of living ceramics—closer, more participatory, and more sustainable.

ARTERRA looks to the future with the same energy with which its cities have kept ceramics alive for centuries. Our path is guided by a clear conviction: ceramics are not only a legacy—they are also an opportunity to build the future.

We want the network to continue growing, welcoming new cities, workshops, museums, cultural spaces, and businesses that share a passion for ceramics. The goal is to build an open, collaborative ecosystem where all people and organizations that add value to this art can find their place.

ARTERRA’s future lies in consolidating a national route of ceramic experiences that brings together tradition, innovation, and sustainability. A route that invites people to travel across Spain’s ceramic destinations through unique experiences: hands-on workshops, guided visits, gastronomy, art, architecture, design, and community.

We will continue working to ensure that ceramics are present in every sphere where they bring identity and beauty—to the table, to spaces, to the landscape, and to everyday life—and that those who create them and those who enjoy them are part of the same shared story.

ARTERRA moves forward with its eyes set on tomorrow: a network that grows, transforms, and continues to shape—through both new and ancient hands—the art that unites us.

ARTERRA Members

1

Association

9

City Councils

0

Workshops

0

Companies

ARTERRA is made up of a network of cities that share the same passion: ceramics as a way of life, identity, and creation. Each contributes its own history, landscape, and unique way of working the earth, weaving a map that spans much of Spain and showcases the extraordinary richness and diversity of this tradition.

Together, these cities drive the project and embody the essence of the Spanish Ceramic Route, transforming their artisanal legacy into living, open, and contemporary experiences.

Talavera de la Reina (Toledo)

Internationally recognized for its ceramics, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, Talavera is the heart of the project. Its pottery tradition is reflected in workshops, museums, and streets where the color and shine of glazed clay tell centuries of history.

Agost (Alicante)

A place where clay is transformed into everyday objects filled with authenticity. Its Pottery Museum and workshops keep alive the spirit of the master potters who brought fame to this Mediterranean enclave.

Alba de Tormes (Salamanca)

Home to a traditional ceramics practice closely linked to its surroundings and local history, Alba de Tormes combines the charm of a monumental town with the discreet, elegant art of its ceramic workshops.

Bailén (Jaén)

A city of red clay and steady hands, Bailén has turned its historic pottery tradition into a driver of cultural and economic development. Its workshops and interpretation center show how earth becomes art and craft.

La Bisbal d’Empordà (Girona)

One of Catalonia’s ceramic capitals, where craftsmanship and contemporary design coexist. In La Bisbal, ceramics are a symbol of identity and creativity, present on every corner of its pottery quarter and in the renowned Terracotta Museum.

La Rambla (Córdoba)

A city with a soul of clay and fire, where popular ceramics meet innovation. Its workshops and exhibitions reflect the vitality of a craft that is an inseparable part of its urban and cultural landscape.

Manises (Valencia)

With a ceramic tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, Manises is an international benchmark in tilemaking and porcelain. Its museum, festivals, and network of workshops make it a meeting point of history, art, and design.

Mota del Cuervo (Cuenca)

In this town of La Mancha, ceramics merge with wind and earth. Traditional pottery remains alive in its workshops, where pieces are made that preserve the essence of popular craftsmanship.

Onda (Castellón)

A destination where ceramics can be felt in its streets and its industry. Onda combines the strength of contemporary production with the heritage value of centuries of ceramic know-how, showcased in its Tile Museum.

Who Can Join the Network

In the process of joining the network:

1 Association – 9 City Councils – 0 Workshops – 0 Companies

ARTERRA is a living, expanding network. It was born from the initiative of cities with a deep ceramic tradition, but it is open to all who share the desire to preserve, promote, and reinvent the culture of clay.

The following can become part of the network:

  • New cities and municipalities that treasure a ceramic heritage—whether in their craftsmanship, heritage, or urban landscape—and wish to join a community working to project the cultural and tourism value of ceramics.
  • Workshops and artisans who keep tradition alive while transforming it into contemporary expression, committed to quality, sustainability, and the transmission of knowledge.
  • Museums, interpretation centers, and cultural spaces dedicated to ceramics and folk art that seek to collaborate in the dissemination and conservation of this heritage.
  • Establishments and companies that incorporate ceramics into their identity—across gastronomy, hospitality, design, decoration, or construction—and help show how ceramics remain present in everyday life.
  • Training and educational entities, associations, and collectives that promote creativity, innovation, and the connection between ceramic art and today’s society.

Joining ARTERRA means becoming part of a community that connects tradition and future—a collaborative network where ceramics are understood not only as art or craft, but as a way of living, creating, and sharing.