Buongiorno Ceramica (Cerreto Sannita)

Buongiorno Ceramica: two days of majolica in Cerreto Sannita

Buongiorno Ceramica is the widespread festival promoted by the AiCC - Italian Association of Cities of Ceramics, which every year, on the last weekend of May, lights up dozens of Italian towns simultaneously. Cerreto Sannita, in the province of Benevento, is one of the Campania Cities of Ceramics that joins the initiative: for an entire weekend, the town's historic center transforms into an open-air workshop, featuring open studios, exhibitions, meetings, and family activities.

A village built around ceramics

The history of Cerreto majolica dates back to the Middle Ages: the oldest known pieces go back to the 14th century, including an ornamental holy water stoup decorated with the profile and wheel of Saint Catherine. The real turning point, however, came in the 18th century, when the feudal lord Marzio Carafa encouraged the establishment of artisan workshops in the new settlement. Thus, the famous Cerreto Majolica School was born, linked to masters like Nicolò Russo and recognizable by its saffron yellows, greens, and blues, and by the mid-18th century, by the deep blue and cobalt shades of pharmacy vases.

That tradition has never been broken. Today, the city preserves the Civic and Cerreto Ceramics Museum, housed in Palazzo Sant'Antonio along Corso Marzio Carafa, and trains new generations of potters at the Artistic High School of the I.I.S. «Carafa-Giustiniani». It is this synergy between the museum, the school, and the still-active workshops that makes Cerreto's participation in Buongiorno Ceramica more than just an exhibition: it is the story of a living craft.

What to do during the weekend

• Open workshops: artisans welcome visitors into their studios and give live demonstrations of throwing, shaping, and brush decoration.
• Special museum openings, with tours dedicated to the collections of Cerreto majolica.
• Exhibitions and installations in civic spaces, from the cloister of the Town Hall to the «G. Verdi» Auditorium.
• Workshops for adults and children, often free and curated by students from the Artistic High School.
• Walks in the 18th-century historic center, among stone portals, churches, and ceramic signs.

The 2026 edition: the «Sacred and Profane» exhibition

The twelfth national edition took place on Saturday, May 23rd, and Sunday, May 24th, 2026, involving 60 Italian municipalities with over 500 events. In Cerreto Sannita, the heart of the program was the «Sacred and Profane» exhibition by Domizio Cassella, presented on Saturday afternoon at the «G. Verdi» Auditorium and then set up in the cloister of the Town Hall: sixteen terracotta holy water stoups that reinterpret a traditional devotional object in a contemporary key, transforming it into a tool for social reflection on fragility and reintegration. The evening combined art, education, and public health, with the participation of the municipal administration, the civic museum, the I.I.S. «Carafa-Giustiniani», the Campania Region, and the SerD of the Benevento Local Health Authority (ASL).

A national network of Cities of Ceramics

Joining Buongiorno Ceramica means entering a circuit that, in Campania, also includes Vietri sul Mare, Naples-Capodimonte, Cava de' Tirreni, Ariano Irpino, and Calitri, extending across the entire Italian majolica landscape. For the visitor, it is an opportunity to view Italian ceramics as a system of local knowledge, each with its own palette and motifs: in the case of Cerreto, a production that is both popular and refined, and strongly representative of the Sannio Beneventano identity.

Why it's worth the trip to Sannio

Cerreto Sannita is located in the Telesina Valley, northwest of Benevento, and during Buongiorno Ceramica, you can combine your visit with the nearby town of San Lorenzello, also a city of ceramics, with which the municipality has already shared joint open-air workshop programs. Two days are enough to visit the museum, enter a workshop, take home a piece signed by a local potter, and understand why, in this corner of Campania, clay is still a profession and not just a memory.