Faenza is an
Italian city and
comune, in the
province of Ravenna,
Emilia-Romagna, situated 50&_160;km southeast of
Bologna.
Faenza is noted for its manufacture of majolica ware glazed earthenware pottery, known from the name of the town as "faience".
Faenza, at the foot of the first Subapennine hills, enjoys a fine location and evocative agrarian surroundings vineyards in the hills, cultivated land with traces of the ancient Roman land-division system, and fertile market gardens in the plains. In the nearby green valleys of the rivers Samoggia and Lamone there are great number of 18th and 19th century stately homes, set in extensive grounds or preceded by long cypress-lined driveways.
Of Roman origins, Faenza is a splendid city of art whose fame already shone in the Renaissance period of the production of exquisitely made pottery that was exported all over Europe. According to mythology, the name of the first settlement, Faoentia, had Etruscan and Celtic roots, meaning in Latin "Splendeo inter deos" or "I shine among the gods," in modern English. The very name, coming from the Romans who developed this center under the name of Faventia, has become synonymous with ceramics (majolica) in various languages, including French (faïence) and English (faience).
