Montelupo Fiorentino

The history

Montelupo sprang up at the beginning of the 13th century as a fortification built by Florence to control the river and the river traffic on the Arno, which was for centuries the main artery for the transport of goods between Florence, Pisa and the Mediterranean.
In 1336 they finished building the walls to protect the village which had grown at the foot of the castle. In the 15th century, thanks also to the inflow of capital from the city, the manufacture of ceramics was developed and was to have its hey-day between 1450 and 1530.

With the repeated epidemics in the 17th century and the resulting economic and political crises and the dramatic decrease in the population which hit Italy, the economic viability of Montelupo suffered a heavy blow, so heavy as to nearly destroy one of the major centres of production in Italy.
The work of the ceramic and terracotta kilns, never fully arrested, revived with a modest increase in the second half of the 18th century, alongside the development of the glass industry.

It was the 19th century, with the building of the railway line Florence- Pisa that saw the revival of ceramic production in the nearby Capraia, with the work of the Bardi and later the Fanciullaci families. This last moved from Montelupo in 1911, and were the real “new” founders of local ceramic manufacture.
Today the town is once again one of the major centres in Italy for the production of ceramics, and belongs to the production district of Empoli, one of the most active in Tuscany. The most important Italian industries of raw materials and ceramic paints are to be found in this area too.