305425595_7946898068716086_7005268301833642368_nx

One day in Modra

Modra | LET’S TAKE A TRIP | > One day in Modra

Výlet na jeden deň

Old Majolica Building

From the 14th century until 1872, craftsmen united in guilds – professional organisations. Guilds controlled the quality and price of products, regulated production quantities, wages and hours worked, they saw to solidarity among their members, and supported widows and orphans. Their structure, meetings, and statutes were strictly defined.

When they dissolved, there was a need to rekindle interest in artisan products, which had dwindled because of the availability of cheap enamelware and porcelainware. The ministries of the Kingdom of Hungary began to support industrial enterprises through subsidies and allowances. For Modra, the first step was the establishment of the ceramics vocational school in the 1880s. The clay in Modra was tested and showed potential for production, and the town provided the premises for the production itself. The town received a subsidy of 3,200 guldens from the state. Jozef Mička of Moravia was given the job of workshop foreman. Apprentices also studied theory and learned practical skills, such as cleaning the kilns and mixing colours and rotating the wares after the firing process. The son of every Modra townsman could become a student. At first, the local potters viewed the school as competition, but they later attended classes and accepted advice to improve the quality of their production.

In 1888, the school became the first private enterprise; Jozef Mička became the tenant of the workshop. The business was prosperous, but employees worked long hours from 6AM to 6PM, and after they went home, they made more pottery privately in the evenings to supplement their income. They worked with lead paint in a damp and hot environment – and died young of pneumonia and cancer. The majority of the employees were from Moravia. Some of the preferred designs included a crimson rose with rosebuds, animals, saints, and craftsmen. Mička died in 1908 and production was stopped in 1911.

Church officials and politicians who lived and worked in Modra came up with the idea to take over the business and turn it into a joint stock company. The new workshop was run by Karol Žák, the first student trained by Jozef Mička. The company had 50 shares valued at 5,000 crowns, and the Protestant pastor Samuel Zoch became the CEO and operating manager. The activities of the workshop were shut down during World War I, from 1914 to 1916. Production was gradually restarted, and after the war the company was unable to fill orders fast enough. They called on the public to purchase shares in the company. In the post-war era, a great interest arose in Slovak art, customs, folk costumes, and ceramics, so the demand for ceramic products was so great they even sold the specimens. This created a demand to make a new pattern book, and the responsibility fell to the painters Ján Ludvik and Heřman Landsfeld. A catalogue was created with product prices and was printed in Slovak, English, and French. Landsfeld was also a collector and he brought valuable templates to the company, thanks to which majolica is considered the heir and sole successor of jug making.

The post-war period also brought technical advancements: electrical wiring was installed in the workshop, materials were purchased completed, and the ceramic products became more colourful and more elaborate.

In 1948, the political situation in Czechoslovakia changed, and so did the situation at our enterprise. In 1952, Modranská keramická dielňa became a part of the union of producer associations and adopted the name Slovenská ľudová majolika. Ignác Bizmayer, Rudolf Barčík, and Michal Petráš all found employment here. In the 1970s, the showroom, gift shop, and jug making shop were relocated from the former synagogue and the enterprise left the premises in the southern bastion. The entire production was relocated to a new complex that offered plenty of space – but lacked atmosphere. A growing interest in ceramics led to the hiring of new employees who underwent very brief training and created gaudy products.

Changes came again in 1989 – fewer customers, followed by reduced production and fewer employees. The focus of production was now on small decorative items, dinner sets, roasting pans, etc.

SNM-Múzeum Ľudovíta Štúra-Múzeum slovenskej keramickej plastiky

The museum of Slovak ceramic sculpture presents an artisan tradition for which Modra is still known today.

It is located near the fortification system (walls) and the circular bastion, elements built in the 17th century when Modra was awarded the status of royal free town.

The permanent exhibit entitled Z dejín modranskej keramiky (From the history of Modra ceramics) was opened in 2017; it captures the traditional local craft from the time of the first written mentions. It covers ceramics traditions, life in a pottery guild, and the products the potters and jug makers produced in the workshops. In addition to pottery and jug making, the traditional assortment of ceramics was enhanced by figurines, and these are presented separately in the exhibit.

SNM-Múzeum Ľudovíta Štúra – Galéria Ignáca Bizmayera

The Ignác Bizmayer Gallery presents a selection of the works of Slovakia’s finest figurine artist. It is located in the round bastion of the town fortification system dating to the early 17th century. It was opened during the World Ceramics Congress in 1994.

Ignác Bizmayer was born in Košolná in western Slovakia in 1922. He was from a family with Haban roots.

Habans were immigrants from Germany who began to arrive in what is today western Slovakia in the 16th century. They were Anabaptists – radical followers of Luther’s Reformation. Their lives were guided by the principles of original Christianity: economic and social equality. They demanded reformation of the Church and society. They created religious and social communities with a strict regime that governed their economic and social life, which caused them to be driven from Switzerland. They made their way to Germany, Austria, Italy, and some went to Moravia, from where they were also expelled (they came into conflict with authorities). They found refuge in the Kingdom of Hungary, where from the late 16th century into the early 17th century they settled in roughly 40 locations in western Slovakia: Skalica, Holíč, Sobotište, Veľké Leváre, Stupava, Častá, Košolná, etc.

The original religious communities came to an end in the late 17th century, when they merged with the native population and underwent re-Catholicisation. The same happened to jug making, which merged with domestic Slovak production.

Assimilated Habans began arriving in Modra in the early 19th century, and one of them, a man called Jozef Kitta, is considered to be the founder of ceramic jug making in Modra.

The Ignác Bizmayer Gallery presents the work of the folk artist who earned the status of professional artist. His clay creations depicting the daily life of Slovaks are collector’s items.

Slovenská ľudová majolika Modra

The building that houses today’s Slovenská ľudová majolika was built at the end of the last century to bring the entire production system into one place with state-of-the-art technology. Today, the company owns only a part of the original premises, as production was stopped. However, the initiative of enthusiasts saw to it that kilns were fired up again after two years, and the company today is following in the traditions and processes of the earlier company. You can buy various useful and decorative items, large and small, all made by skilled masters and painted by adept painters.

Depending on how busy the studio is, visitors who call in advance can take a tour or attend a workshop. Plan to spend anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes here.

The total time to create a product depends on the group size, but is estimated at roughly 3 hours.

Heřman Landsfeld

The next to last stop is the cemetery, Heřman Landsfeld’s final resting place. This man, who called himself a Moravian Slovak, was born 13 August 1899 at Malenovice in Moravia. Heřman was not from a family engaged in the arts, but he himself had a proclivity for painting. His father was a baker but did not demand that his son follow in his footsteps.

In 1913, the young Landsfeld was discovered by Marie Vořechová-Vejvodová, an academic painter at the town school in Zlín, who had come to find new ceramic painters for the school in Modra. He began attending the school that same autumn. He went from a support position to painting ceramics.

Modra became his home, with a brief hiatus, until 1939. In those years, he mastered the potter’s wheel, was the head of the ceramics workshop, collected countless pottery shards, and prepared exhibits and exhibitions. He also met his future wife, Alžbeta Gajdová, who had come to Modra for a five-month course in painting, modelling, and pattern drawing. Together, they illustrated the ethnographic book Podunajská dedina by Antonín Václavík.

This archaeological activities were interesting and striking – on the sites of old Haban courtyards in Sobotište, Košolná, Veľké Leváre, and other places he discovered not only fragments but also complete parts of kilns and pottery.

His wife, Alžbeta Gajdová, helped him document the details of the houses and facades, furniture and facades, and she herself painted furniture.

He left Slovakia in 1939, when the situation began to grow tense with animosity towards foreigners and Protestants. He quit his job at the Modra workshop and returned to Moravia with his wife. He opened a pottery workshop in Strážnice, but he continued in his archaeological research and collecting ceramics. He kept a book where he added all the new items he had found. He entered a description, brand, size, craftsman’s name, place of discovery, price, and other remarks concerning the object.

The works of the Landsfelds, and the objects they collected, are included in the collections of several museums. In Slovakia, for instance, this includes the SNM Museum of History, the Small Carpathian Museum in Pezinok, the SNM Ľudovít Štúr Museum, and the Západoslovenské museum in Trnava.

This talented pottery master and collector chose his beloved Modra for his final resting place.

Príbeh Majoliky