Description 

Half an hour distance from the city of Ramnicu Valcea, in the northern part of Oltenia.

Horezu is probably the most important pottery center in Romania and the locals will be very open to provide pottery lessons for anyone interested in this beautiful craft. You should also attend "Cocosu de Hurez" festival, a traditional event that happens in the first Sunday of June, when the craftsmen families come up with the best of their work. Also, one of the oldest and most beautiful monasteries in Romania is located in the village: Horezu Monastery.

Pottery is an ancient tradition for people in the vilage Horezeu, in Oltenia region. Only a few craftsmen from the small community practice it for a living. It used to be something to do in your free time,but soon the fame of Horezu went national and those who did it right made it their main occupation and built their own workshops. Oltenia region has a long tradition in pottery and Horezu is the strongest center of the area: 15 potter families are located in the village, some of them passing this craft from generation to generation. There is a very nice gallery opened in the village where you can see the best work coming from the local craftsmen and from other pottery centers from Romania.

How they do it
The clay is stored in the workshop for half an year or longer so that you get a perfectly homogeneous material. Every village has its own technique to prepare the material, create the shapes and decorate. Horezeu is very rich in decoration techniques using multiple colors. The symbols they're using are coming from folklore, some of them - like the zigzags and the spirals - have been observed as motifs on local pottery thousand of years old. Repetition, alteration and symmetry are the main creative tools. As for the colors, the traditional palette is orage, green and blue on white background.