Villedieu-les-Poêles lives up to its name. The city is internationally renowned for its craftsmanship in copper work, coppersmithing, foundry, and art boiler making. Its inhabitants are called ‘Théopolitains’, or ‘Sourdins’, a term associated with the activity of coppersmithing: the repetitive hammering of the copper which would damage the workers’ hearing. It was Luigi Bergamo who reintroduced the decoration of bells, a practice that had been abandoned for 200 years. For certain projects, the foundry calls on independent artists to create exceptional and personalised objects.