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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a novel and effective fabricating method of 3D ceramic photonic crystals with diamond structure. Design/methodology/approach – The reverse diamond-structure resin molds are fabricated by stereolithography (SL), then ceramic slurry is prepared and injected into the molds under vacuum condition. Subsequently, ceramic photonic crystals are obtained after vacuum freeze-drying and sintering. Findings – The combination of SL, gel-casting and freeze-drying could be used to fabricate the 3D ceramic photonic crystals with diamond structure which have intact structure and minimal shrinkage. The samples have been tested and the experimental results indicate that their band gap is in the range of 10.14-12.20 GHz, consistent with the simulation results. Research limitations/implications – The influence of fabrication process on the photonic band gap needs further study. Originality/value – This paper presents a novel fabricating method of 3D diamond-structure ceramic photonic crystals based on SL, gel-casting and freeze-drying. The method fabricates complex ceramic photonic crystals with high accuracy and helps further research in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]