![Durán-Loriga’s mid-century masterpiece, the fountain in the Plaza de la Glorieta in Elche, Spain. Image: Universidad Miguel Hernández](http://www.modernware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/miguel_duran_loriga-1.jpg)
In 1952, Miguel Durán-Loriga y Rodrigáñez founded the Cerámica Artística Alfaraz (Alfaraz Pottery) in the town of Alcala de Henares, just north of Madrid. Durán-Loriga was a noted mid-20th century Spanish ceramicist, designer, architect and professor.
![Alfaraz plate, c1960s.](http://www.modernware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Lady-plate.jpg)
The factory had two rather disparate production lines. One produced small decorative items, gift boxes, vases, and imaginative figures of Spanish people and animals. These mid-century avant-garde designs are truly remarkable.
![Alfaraz horse figure, 1960s. Image: Anthony Meyers](http://www.modernware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Alfaraz-horse.jpg)
![Alfaraz head](http://www.modernware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Alvaraz-head.jpg)
The other line produced architectural ceramic murals where Durán-Loriga’s artistry was fully expressed. He called his mural projects “paramentos”, which can be translated as “adornments” or “vestments.” Eventually he lost interest in the pottery and created a cooperative owned by the workers.
![Alfaraz mosaic wall. Image: Anthony Meyers](http://www.modernware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Alvaraz-mosaic.jpg)
Durán-Loriga was the designer and architect of a revolutionary mid-century masterpiece, the fountain in the Plaza de la Glorieta in Elche, Spain (built in the late 1960s). Unhappily it was torn down; but, happily, the town recently rebuilt an exact replica of the fountain in the Parc Municipal.
The history of the European mid-century ceramics could not be written without a chapter to honor Durán-Loriga. Durán-Loriga defined his ethic in this way: “The precursor of the industrial designer is a craftsman.”
![Durán-Loriga’s mid-century masterpiece, the fountain in the Plaza de la Glorieta in Elche, Spain.](http://www.modernware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/fuente_de_la_glorieta.jpg)
![Fountain, Eiche, Spain](http://www.modernware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/La-Fuente-de-la-Glorieta.jpg)