Vyšehradnian rarity with EUROPA NOSTRA

On the way through Vyšehradná , on the Prievidza - Martin route, stop at the unique reconstructed national cultural monument of our folk architecture - a folk house with a ceramic workshop.

In house no. 898 is a small museum of living, traditional clothing and ceramics workshop / Haronika Ceramics /.
The house belongs to the ceramic maker Rastislav Haronik . The reconstruction of the house lasted for nearly 20 years . In 1993, for the rescue of this building, he won the Europa Nostra Award awarded by the Danish prince . There was a private museum in the house. There is a collection of ceramic vessels , but also various folk art objects from metal, wood, leather or textiles. The owner also has a collection of old costumes he can repair himself.

The original black kitchen has been preserved in the house. Little has been preserved in such a form . It is a medieval way of preparing food on an open fire . The kitchen has a stone vault , which, when heated, served as a furnace. They cooked on a direct fire in pots or boils with feet. Interestingly, the smoke rose to the top of the room , in the corner of which was a wide chimney sliding beneath the saddle roof . There, the smoke freed freely, while preserving the roof .

The medieval village of Vyšehradné has become a cultural map of Europe thanks to the passion, skill and patience of Rasť Haroník . And thanks to the fact that he won the prize and diploma of the international organization EUROPA NOSTRA . The prize was awarded "for an exemplary renovation of the village dwelling in a traditional spirit".

When the apartment is not enough
How did this graduate of the middle-class artistic industry in Bratislava come to the idea of ​​buying more than a neglected house at a time when the respect for the old was limited to visiting museums and museums? Rasto Haronik, as a student, began to collect old ceramics and was interested in old folk crafts : "I still met a groom in a childhood, an engraver who still wore his costume, a basket-maker, a blacksmith, along with SNM's visit to Martine. On that day I became a passionate collector of ceramics - on Martin's path I picked up a bunch of scrapes that I still keep collecting and I still collect them in 1965. " After a while, he found that he had no place at home in his apartment, where he could store other valuable pieces of his collection. Throughout Slovakia, he has long been looking for a house that would be an interesting object of folk architecture and could later turn into his own museum. The old cottage near the native Prievidza was what he was looking for.

Time stopped
The house that Rasťo looked out was once a farmer and was a typical German type of dwelling . This building was also appreciated for its antiquity - its facade dates back to 1873 . Old photos show a ruin rather than a house. The reconstruction lasted several years because the new owner did everything for his own money and with his friends . Today, anyone who comes around will fall into the eye.
When Rasťo completed the reconstruction, he brought a ceramic workpiece in the back where he worked with his mother for the Bratislava School. After years, efforts are now as much as you imagined.

A house for life and a show
In the front room it seemed as if time had stopped. Everything in it is a faithful copy of an old room of an old cattery house . A view from the piton reveals a black kitchen . Museum, exposition of old furniture, tools, ceramics, costumes, dishes. If the owner has something to buy or buy and is damaged, he will repair it himself. "In Nitrianske Pravne , I managed to create a circle of enthusiasts interested in the old textile techniques . We have done reconstructions of parts as well as whole costumes together ."

For Rasťa it is a commonplace everyday that it honors the cultural traditions of our nation. Although our history is not so rich in the so-called " High art, our people abound with amazing creativity . All the possible sectors and activities have been able to raise what we are talking about folk art today and we can be proud of it. They had a very difficult life, it was a real struggle for survival, today we can only imagine it with great problems. Though people today are complaining about living conditions, they have never been so easy and comfortable to live. "