The historical terracotta workshop Fornace Agresti in Impruneta (Florence, Tuscany) was opened to the public for the first time in 2014 with the event “Terracotta and Wine” after extensive restoration commissioned by the Municipality of Impruneta whose property it is. Further work inside the building was done to make it even more welcoming and richer from an aesthetic point of view during the previous 2016 edition of “Terracotta and Wine”.

The inside of the building, due to the fact that it is built into a hillside, is organized on four superimposed levels: during the two days dedicated to terracotta and wine, new spaces and several new features will be added to those already existing from previous editions.

This magical place that echoes with the patient work of man and the slow rhythm of the passing seasons goes back to the early 1700s when the Agresti family from Impruneta, moved here from via della Croce (near the main square). The “Fornace” (furnace or kiln in Italian) was still in use until a few decades ago.

18^th Century “Fornace Agresti” still maintains the charm and beauty of its historical origins. In the two wood burning kilns, still intact to this day, where temperatures reached over a thousand degrees, the clay mined in Impruneta, unalterable over time, was combined with water and fire in an extraordinary union to create inimitable handicrafts. The storage area for the wood was on the floor below near to the circular space where, in times gone by, a donkey walked slowly round and round, pulling huge grindstones to crush the rough earth into fine clay.

In times gone by, work places were defined by the seasons: in good weather, the craftsmen worked in the large veranda giving onto the courtyard outside, while in winter the moulding and drying of the pieces was done in the rooms next to the kilns.