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Stoneware Museum

Château de Saint-Amand
58310 Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye

In several rooms of the Renaissance castle, the museum retraces, around a collection of utilitarian stoneware, four centuries of a history that has shaped the landscape and the people.

A land of hedgerows and forests, Puisaye is, by the nature of its subsoil, rich in sandstone clay, a land of predilection for pottery. This clay, fired at high temperature in the kilns, has the property of vitrifying in the mass, which gives the containers the great resistance and the total watertightness which made their success. Here were born pieces for culinary use : toulons, berchets, crapauds, whose distribution has largely exceeded the framework of Burgundy Nivernaise.

This favourable environment encouraged some artists to settle in Puisaye at the end of the 19th century. Influenced by Japonism and Art Nouveau, they developed around their master Jean Carriès (1855-1894) an artistic movement that was active for nearly 70 years and resolutely turned towards innovative decorative creations. A room is dedicated to them

Finally, contemporary creation completes this chronological panorama, through temporary exhibitions and a rich permanent collection.