Pottery in Pukanec is an integral part of the cultural heritage of the former royal town, today the village of Pukanec in the district of Levice. The first mention of pottery in Pukanec, then already a developed craft, dates from 1542; the pottery guild in Pukanec was founded in 1663. Since the products had a high technological, functional, and aesthetic level, they were exported to distant markets and fairs in Slovakia and Hungary. After 1945, the Centre for Folk Art Production in Bratislava was responsible for preserving traditional pottery production in Pukanec.
Ceramics are used for cooking, baking, in wine cellars, or for storing food and grain. The pottery is made from red clay, called červenica. The speciality is painting under the glaze. Brick-red, ochre-yellow, brown, green, and blue engobes, also called hlinky (clays), are used for painted, embossed or engraved decoration on a white-cream base, which the masters prepare themselves. After decoration, the ceramics are fired, and then a transparent glaze is applied. The characteristic feature is the painted decoration – plant motifs such as a pea flower called the rose of Pukanec, an unfolded clover, a tulip, a Jericho flower and many others.
Important potters, creators of Pukanec ceramics, were Ján Moravčík (1915 – 1991), Ján Könyves (1919 – 2010), Ján Majlát (1923 – 1997), Pavol Mádaj (1921 – 2003), Milan Mezei (1946), Viliam Frank (1921 – 1994) and his son Ján Frank (1951 – 2010), in whose birthplace the Pottery Museum is now established.
Currently, two pottery workshops are active in Pukanec: Pukanská keramika, where master potters Tomáš Frank and Vladimír Weinciller work, and Hrnčiar Peťo workshop, where master potter Peter Schvarc works. They produce decorative and utilitarian ceramics according to old designs, patterns and forms using traditional technologies and inherited craftsmanship. Traditional procedures are supplemented with modern technologies.
In addition to pottery workshops, Pukanec ceramics and technological tools can be seen in two municipal museums in Pukanec – the Pukanec History Exposition and the Pottery Museum.
Ceramics are used for cooking, baking, in wine cellars, or for storing food and grain. The pottery is made from red clay, called červenica. The speciality is painting under the glaze. Brick-red, ochre-yellow, brown, green, and blue engobes, also called hlinky (clays), are used for painted, embossed or engraved decoration on a white-cream base, which the masters prepare themselves. After decoration, the ceramics are fired, and then a transparent glaze is applied. The characteristic feature is the painted decoration – plant motifs such as a pea flower called the rose of Pukanec, an unfolded clover, a tulip, a Jericho flower and many others.
Important potters, creators of Pukanec ceramics, were Ján Moravčík (1915 – 1991), Ján Könyves (1919 – 2010), Ján Majlát (1923 – 1997), Pavol Mádaj (1921 – 2003), Milan Mezei (1946), Viliam Frank (1921 – 1994) and his son Ján Frank (1951 – 2010), in whose birthplace the Pottery Museum is now established.
Currently, two pottery workshops are active in Pukanec: Pukanská keramika, where master potters Tomáš Frank and Vladimír Weinciller work, and Hrnčiar Peťo workshop, where master potter Peter Schvarc works. They produce decorative and utilitarian ceramics according to old designs, patterns and forms using traditional technologies and inherited craftsmanship. Traditional procedures are supplemented with modern technologies.
In addition to pottery workshops, Pukanec ceramics and technological tools can be seen in two municipal museums in Pukanec – the Pukanec History Exposition and the Pottery Museum.
Proposal by
Mária Gembešová, Peter Klinko, Maroš Schmidt
Year of Inscription
2023
Certificate number
CTLK-RZNKD-2022/003
