Départemental Ceramics Museum of Puy-de-Dôme

The museum is 25 km east of Claremont Ferrand in central France. It began in 1957 to care for the archaeological material excavated in Lezoux, which was a centre for Roman ceramic production, especially the fine red ‘sigillée’ or ‘Samian’ ware. In the 1980s the town council relocated the museum to a ceramics factory dating from 1866 built by Antoine and François Bompard. The two-storey stone buildings are arranged attractively around a courtyard. They include workshops, drying sheds, two circular kilns, warehouses and the house of the owners. From the 1860s to the 1950s the factory produced refractory ceramics, stoneware and decorative earthenware, and later sanitary ware. The museum was redeveloped and enlarged after 1999 by the département of Puy-de-Dôme. It shows the types and the uses of ceramics from ancient times to the present, a reconstructed Roman kiln and displays about the technology of ceramics and their history in the region.