The Vietri sul Mare Ceramics Museum in Raito collects numerous exhibits inside that will allow you to relive the history of Vietri ceramics, which has always been a high-quality craft product.

The Vietri sul Mare Ceramics Museum is located within the Villa Guariglia complex in Raito, which now belongs to the provincial heritage of Salerno. In 1970 the owner Raffaele Guariglia, Ambassador of Italy, Order of Malta and Foreign Minister in the Badoglio government, donated the entire complex to the province of Salerno.

The present appearance of Villa Guariglia is the result of the last and final disposition in the 1930s, after the transformations that little by little over the course of the 19th century changed the farmhouse into the present structural body of the villa after the annexation of other surrounding lands, later purchased in 1929 by the ambassador's father, Alfonso Guariglia.

On May 9, 1981, in Villa Guariglia's Torretta Belvedere, the Vietri Ceramics Museum was inaugurated, fulfilling the aspirations and desires of local Vietri residents, proud of their ancient traditional ceramics, as well as many intellectuals and academics who supported the revival of that form of craftsmanship, promoted as a cultural institution through the preservation of the works that marked the seasons of Vietri ceramics starting with the oldest preserved specimens.

The reopening on July 3, 1992, after a period of closure, decreed the first expansion of the museum, using the rooms on the first floor of the Torretta that had been unused until then.

Subsequently, on July 6, 2001, the section devoted to “riggiole,” a term for tiles intended for floor and wall coverings, was inaugurated, deriving mainly from munificent donations that allowed the increase of tiles to three hundred types.

The Museum of Ceramics in Raito, housed in the Belvedere Tower, is divided into three sectors, each of which follows a thematic and chronological principle.

1. The first section includes objects of a religious or spiritual nature, for example you will find in this section: votive tiles and domestic stoups, dating back to the first half of the 17th century.

2. The second sector houses a rich collection of everyday objects, such as pottery vases, jugs and bottles traceable to the nineteenth century perdiod.

3. The third sector illustrates, through various named sections, the so-called “German period. ”The sector houses numerous findings of Vietri's ceramic production dating from the period 1920 - 1947, during which various German citizens characterized the style.
   

The ceramics on display are mostly from Vietri, but also from other sites in Campania such as Ariano Irpino and Cerreto Sannita, as well as specimens from Puglia, Calabria and Liguria.