What is Cerreto Sannita known for?

Centuries-old ceramic tradition shared with San Lorenzello, revived by the State Art Institute in the twentieth century and recognized as Città della Ceramica. Entire town leveled by the 5 June 1688 earthquake and replanned on an orthogonal grid by royal engineer Giovanni Battista Manni. On the southern edge of the Matese Regional Park, with limestone slopes, beech forest and trails into the Sannio interior.

Where is Cerreto Sannita?

Cerreto Sannita is a comune in the province of Benevento, Campania region of Italy, about 70 kilometers from Napoli.

Campania · Benevento

Cerreto Sannita

A Sannio ceramics town, rebuilt from scratch by royal engineer Giovanni Battista Manni after the 1688 earthquake leveled the old hill.

70 km / 43 mi

Nearest hub (Napoli)

3,607

Population

Apr–Oct

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Cerreto Sannita sitsin the Titerno valley of the Sannio, fifty-five kilometers northeast of Naples, with the Matese massif rising behind. The earthquake of 5 June 1688 leveled the old town; what visitors walk today was planned and rebuilt between 1688 and 1696 by royal engineer Giovanni Battista Manni at the order of Count Marzio Carafa, his brother Marino, and Bishop Giovanni Battista de Bellis. The new grid runs orthogonally around a central piazza, a rare case of late-baroque urban planning in southern Italy. The other anchor is ceramics. Cerreto and neighbouring San Lorenzello have produced majolica since at least the sixteenth century, and the State Art Institute revived the craft in the mid-twentieth. Workshops still turn out ceremonial plates, lobed jugs, apothecary jars and riggiole tiles painted with wind-rose and garland motifs. The town is a Bandiera Arancione, a Cittaslow, and one of Italy's official Città della Ceramica.

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Gallery

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Known for

Cattedrale della Santissima Trinità
Cathedral rebuilt after the 1688 earthquake at the centre of Manni's new town plan, with baroque facade and tiled dome.
Museo Civico e della Ceramica Cerretese
Civic museum dedicated to four centuries of local majolica, with ceremonial plates, riggiole tiles and apothecary jars from Cerreto and San Lorenzello workshops.
Chiesa di San Martino
Late seventeenth-century church with painted majolica floor of Cerreto tiles, one of the best preserved riggiole pavements in the Sannio.
Centro storico orthogonal grid
Late-baroque street plan laid out by Giovanni Battista Manni between 1688 and 1696, a rare case of planned reconstruction after seismic destruction.
Matese Regional Park slopes
Limestone massif rising north of the town, beech forest, karst lakes and the Sant'Erasmo trail above the Titerno valley.

When to visit

Best months · Apr–Oct

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

April through June and September into October are the dry, walkable months in the Titerno valley, when the Matese is still green and the ceramic workshops keep regular hours. July and August push the valley into the mid-thirties; the orthogonal centro storico holds shade well enough, but afternoons go quiet between two and six. November through March is winter on the Matese flank, with cold rain and occasional snow above the town and several workshops on reduced hours. The patronal feast of Sant'Anna falls in late July, and the Cerreto majolica fair brings buyers in for early September.