Centre Céramique Contemporaine de Giroussens

Giroussens, an old fortified town founded at the end of the 13th century around a castle overlooking the Agout valley, was before the Revolution a small prosperous city thanks to the activity of many potters established at the edge of the forest, using a privilege granted to the inhabitants to take wood from the forest to fuel their ovens. The earth was under their feet, because as in the whole of the Toulouse basin it is clayey and of a beautiful red.
At the beginning of the 72th century, there were XNUMX master potters, companions and apprentices who founded the brotherhood of “Saint Rufine”, a Spanish martyr, patron saint of potters, who provided them with spiritual and material support and to whom a chapel was dedicated in the village.

The 91 potters of the village, present in 1735, enjoyed the most flourishing period of their industry. Their fame was due to the production of dishes and plates reminiscent of Italian lead-glazed ceramics, colored yellow, green and blue. The decorations then evoked simple and stylized vegetation, animal fauna most often reduced to birds and caricatured human portraits.

As the centuries passed, the ceramics of Giroussens were forgotten. It was not until the 1990s that the village remembered its glorious past by organizing the first of its Ceramic Markets, which 30 years later still brings together as many fans and curious people, every first weekend of June. In 1999, the Town Hall acquired the former outbuildings of the village castle with the idea of ​​opening a Center dedicated to ceramics.

For over 20 years, the Centre has welcomed visitors and presented them with 4 exhibitions: two permanent heritage exhibitions and 2 temporary exhibitions dedicated to contemporary ceramics. The latter change four times a year and the rooms are then adorned with new works, by French and/or international artists, from small and large workshops.
The permanent exhibitions reveal some old ceramics from Giroussens as well as the works of the artist Lucie Bouniol.

It was also within these walls that Lucie Bouniol (1896-1988) had her studios. A village artist who studied in Marseille, then with Bourdelle before going to Paris where she became, among other things, a friend of Colette. A painter, designer and sculptor, Lucie loved to represent the world around her, the traditions as much as the inhabitants of this small village that she loved so much. Upon her death, a significant bequest was made to the commune, which now holds most of her collection and exhibits it in one of the Centre's rooms.

A ceramics shop and a specialist bookstore complete the tour by offering works by local artists.

The Center is open from mid-February to the end of December, from Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 12pm & from 14pm to 18pm. In July and August it also opens its doors on Mondays.

The Center is accessible to people in wheelchairs.

On presentation of the “Good Deals” booklet -25% (€3 instead of €4), valid for 2 adults.

Option: Guided tour of the permanent exhibitions and accompaniment of temporary visits with a guide from the Association of Independent Guides of Tarn (AGIT), Adult Groups: €135 / group, 35 people maximum. Beyond that, a second guide is mandatory.”