3. Sciacca is located in the southwest coast of Sicily, in the middle between Agrigento and Selinunte taking a beautiful location in the Mediterranean sea. Bounded by natural rivers Carboi and vegetables. Its harbor mooring a large fleet of fishing vessels and small boats.

4. Sciacca is one of the importance of note among the most important in Sicily. It has the reputation for its beautiful monuments, with its fascinating stories, good people, its antiquity, its wonderful climate and its good position in the mediterranea sea.

5. Sciacca was the center of production and marketing of ceramic since the times remote. Findings give the opportunity to know the names of the artists between XV and XVII century: Lu Xuto, Scomi, Francavilla, Piparo, Di Facio, the Boj, Bonaca and Lombardo. The ceramic Saccensi contributes strongly to the artistic monuments, churches architecture and urban planning, such as the Duomo di Monreale decorated with thousands of bricks of the master Lombardo (1498), the church of S. Margherita di Sciacca with bricks provided by teachers and Scomi Francavilla (1496).

6. First records are provided by the numerous fragments uncovered in the Feudo di San Domenico, dating back to the Norman period. Fragments of glazed objects dating back to the middle of the 14th century, today on display in the Ceramics Museum of Caltagirone.

7. The production of majolica bricks has been based in the centre of Sciacca since the late 15th century, as testified by documents detailing the supplies of majolica ware shipped to Palermo. Sciacca majolica ware achieved great popularity in the 16th century: it was manufactured by masters such as Antonio Ramanno, the Lo Boj brothers and Giuseppe Bonachia, the most renowned tile painter in Sicily, creator of the imposing majolica moulding hosted in the St. George's Chapel.

8. The chapel moulding and floor were made up of 2475 tiles: this impressive amount led scholars to refer to the chapel as “the Sistine Chapel of Italian majolica”. Today only six scenes remain of the large panel portraying episodes from the Old and New Testaments: they are hosted in Sciacca art school.

9. Ceramics arts concern the creation of products made of earth, hand moulded o mechanically moulded and fired. The words derives from the Greek name of clay and it is used in modern languages with the meaning of the word fictilis in Latin, indicating any object made of clay.

10. Ceramics include crockery, statues and statuettes and building elements. These objects differ in their technical features: a) depending on the nature of the earth and of the ingredients that are sometimes added to make the body, as each variety requires a specific temperature; b) depending on their coating, on the decorative elements and on the type of decoration. An essential raw material is a body with enough cohesion and plasticity, obtained by the mixture of an adequate amount of water with clay, at its natural state or mixed with other substances.

11. Realized by Luciana Guttuso IV C Liceo scientifico Ettore Majorana di Scordia