Altitude 218 m s.l.m.
Area 44,51 km²
Population 9 669 (2015)
The city is located into a hill domineering the valle del Tevere (Tiber valley), at the foot of a hill chain with thick Mediterranean scrubland. The new area, developed from the ‘50s of last Century, is full of ceramics workshops and little factories all along via Tiberina, parallel to SS E/45.
Evidence of the ancient origins of the villages are provided by archeological finds of Etruscan and Roman times, from the IV Century b.C., exhibited in the hall of the Palazzo Comunale. Certainly the name recalls the Latin lemma “diruta”, i.e. ruined, destroyed.
During the Middle, ages Deruta is a fortified castle belonging to the defensive system of Perugia, even if with its own legislation. Of the ancient Castle still visible today, if modified, the three doors, remains of the walls and the road to Piazza dei Consoli, where the Palace with the same name is; it shows a XI Century tower adorned with mullioned ogival windows; here the site of the Municipality of Deruta and the Pinacoteca comunale (Municipal Picture Gallery). Opposite the palazzo dei Consoli the Church of San Francesco; inside frescos of the “Senese School”, among which to be noted the “Martirio di S. Caterina” (Martyrdom of S Caterina), patron saint of the ceramists (1339) and a “Madonna con Bambino e Santi” (Madonna with child and Saints”) by Domenico Alfani (coworker of Raffaello). The annex former convent of S. Francesco is the site of the rich Museo Regionale della Ceramica (Regional Museum of Ceramics), from ancient times to contemporary samples. In the close by Piazza Benincasa the church of Sant’Antonio Abbate with artworks by Bartolomeo and Gian Battista Caporali (XV Century).
Deruta is worldwide famous for its production of ceramics, since the Middle Ages, even if its maximum was during the Renaissance, at the beginning of the XVI Century. Witnesses of its artistic value are the ancient ceramics, of different shapes and colours, today displayed in several museums around the world.
A singular documentation of Deruta Ceramics can be seen inside the Santuario della Madonna dei Bagni (Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Bagni) in Casalina, whose church is covered by ex voto from the second hald of the XVII Century till today. The gathering, of great interest on an anthropological point of view, offers an unusual picture of everyday life in Umbria.