Ceramics and pottery have been, and are still the most emblematic activities of La Bisbal d’Empordà, the city where the museum can be found. Under their influence, the main economic drivers which have granted a job (and still do) to an important part of the local population have been configured. Furthermore, these activities have their origins in the old days of the village (the oldest preserved document on the subject tells about a local potter from 1502), and as time passed they have developed a particular history and have generated both material and immaterial wealth.
Terracotta Pottery Museum has the purpose of preserving and disseminating the scientific, technical and industrial heritage of Bisbal ceramics, to exhibit the process of particular industrialization that has taken place within this specific field. Moreover, to promote the knowledge of science and current techniques and vertebrate the industriatization aspect that is explained.
The fact that the headquarters of the Museum is located in an industrial building allows for demonstration and integration of the museum’s architectual elements that are characteristic for the production: chimneys, clay and glazed primer tanks, kilns… Without a doubt, the preservation and enhancement of these elements makes Terracotta one of the most unique cultural facilities in our region.
The museum has a collection of more than ten thousand pieces between ceramic objects and tools, some of them related to its manufacture, most of which have been donated by the manufacturers from la Bisbal. Also, an important collection of ceramics provided by the Generalitat is formed by more than three thousand containers from all over the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic and Canary Islands.
The museum opened its doors by municipal initiative in 1991, when a temporary exhibition hall was opened. In 1998, once the building was partially renovated, a first permanent exhibition was held. In 2009, the Museum closed doors to start what would be the final restoration works of the building, it lasted until the end of 2015 when the Museum reopened definitively.
The works repesented the radical transformation of the institution, and undoubtedly marked their future. The reform carried out involved, on the one hand, the transformation of the building in order to increase its capacity for promotion and attraction, the adaptation and updating of the different services and, on the other hand, a new museum project which allowed to renew the permanent exhibition and program an offer of cultural and leisure activities.
The museum represents for the ceramics industry of la Bisbal d’Empordà and Girona region and important emblem that enhances its values of tradicion (many of the current companies are centenary); without a doubt the museum is, at this time, the cultural offer with more projection of La Bisbal and one of the most important ceramic museums in the country.

Terracotta Museu
C/ Indústria, 9
La Bisbal d’Empordà
+34 972 64 20 67
terracottamuseu@labisbal.cat
www.terracottamuseu.cat