Located in Reggello, in the hills of Tuscany 25 km southeast of Florence, birthplace of "cotto clay" and of the famous artisan masters, the VALORIANI family has produced refractory products since 1890.

Throughout the last century, many important types of refractory materials have been identified, produced and distributed all over the world by the VALORIANI family.

Over the last few years, VALORIANI has coated over 100.000 stoves for the major European stove manufacturers, while it has built and installed over 300,000 prefabricated wood burning ovens all over the world.

The Family

Massimo and Valeriano Valoriani, the actual owners of FORNACE VALORIANI, are the 5th generation of a family who from around 1890 has produced and continues to produce one of the best quality refractory brick today, be it for industrial ovens or wood burning ovens of domestic or professional use.

Around the end of the 1800's, the great-grandfather of Massimo and Valeriano, found one the best refractory clay quarries in the area of REGGELLO, 20 KM from Florence, where the furnace was then moved from of Figline Valdarno.
This new location became the main site and today is still one of the only centers of production of Valoriani refractory brick and prefabricated wood fired ovens.

Situated on a hillside, practically in midst of the quarry, the furnace has continued to produce refractory bricks for industrial ovens and bread ovens for the past 40 years, supplying quality products in Italy and abroad.

The Oven

The clay from the new quarry had the right amount of alumina, which is the base for the firing of refractory brick. This makes us different from the competition, and even though the patent expired in the 70's, many have tried to copy the Valoriani prefabricated wood burning ovens since then, but with no success.

The special design of Valoriani and the use of the ‘granulated’ refractory brick to make the molds for elements which mortise the dome, are perfect for finding the equilibrium and for functionality due to the width of the elements made of refractory brick and for making molds for the surface.

History

After World War II the government social assistance program proposed reconstruction in southern Italy and turned to VALORIANI for a supply of about a million refractory bricks, with which thousands of wood burning ovens were built for new houses. With an oven the southern farmer was guaranteed the basic element necessary for food, which at that time was mainly bread made in this type of wood burning ovens.

Due to the war the old method of constructing a wood burning oven with refractory brick had been lost and therefore Silvio Valoriani, father of Massimo and Valeriano, drew up a plan and constructed the first prefabricated wood burning oven using all the family experience, primary materials and refractory clay for constructing them. In this manner he defined the best structural drawing of his time and its success has not varied even today.

The idea was immediately a great success and Italians were easily convinced due to the Valoriani wood burning ovens, simple building instructions, installation and use. It had been patented periodically for 20 years and during this time it was the only oven produced in the thousands and sold nationwide.