Talleres de Alfarería Tradicional

Agost still has eleven working potteries, six of which continue to produce ceramics using traditional methods, an unusual concentration of craft for a town this size. The workshops work the area's white, porous clay, a raw material that lets water vessels — above all the botijo — cool by evaporation, which is why Agost historically specialised in jugs and botijos rather than other pottery centres in the province.

A craft passed down through generations

The earliest document mentioning pottery-making in Agost dates to 1277, and some of the families still working the wheel today have been documented in the trade since the 18th century, eight generations back. Several workshops still have three-storey Moorish-style kilns, where pieces are fired following much the same process used centuries ago, and several family workshops open their doors to show the full process, from wheel to kiln.

What to see

A workshop visit lets you watch white clay being thrown by hand up close, from the traditional botijo to jugs and jars for everyday use, a craft that today survives in very few places in the Comunitat Valenciana with these characteristics. Working through the town workshop by workshop is the best way to make sense of what is explained at the Museo de Alfarería, and it is worth rounding off the visit with the Ermita de las Santas Justa y Rufina, dedicated to the trade's patron saints.

The workshops are concentrated in the old town of Agost, close to the church of Sant Pere Apòstol as well, so a single morning is enough to cover the town's whole pottery heritage on foot.