Cross-border project IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HUTTERITE
Basic data
Operational Program: Interreg V-A Slovak Republic – Czech Republic
Priority axis: 2 Quality environment
Specific objective: 2.1 Increasing the attractiveness of cultural and natural heritage for residents and visitors of the cross-border region
Implemented activities
Reconstruction of the Hutterite mill with its technical background in Sobotište
Reconstruction of the so-called Hutterite cellar in Vacenovice
Establishment of the museum exposition Museum of Hutterites in Sobotište
Hutterite exhibition in Vacenovice
“Educational trail through Hutterite court” in Sobotište
External exposition in Vacenovice “Anabaptist in Bohemia”
website www.muzeumhabanov.sk .
Implementation date 09/2017 – 03/2020
Budget
- Total project costs
- The amount of NFP
- Total expenditure of the village Sobotište
- Total expenditure of the village Vacenovice
A common theme of cross-border cooperation is the history and culture of Hutterite / Anabaptist communities typical only of the area of southeastern Bohemia and southwestern Slovakia. The aim of the project is to protect and make visible the unique cultural heritage of the cross-border area and to create new tourist destinations.
About Project
The first Hutterite court in Slovakia was established in Sobotište in 1546. For two centuries it became an important center of Hutterites in Slovakia. To this day, it preserves the unique remains of Hutterites architecture. With a political decision, the history of the village focused on the personality of Samuel Jurkovič and the establishment of the first credit union. Only when the inhabitants began to demolish the original architecture, the Trnava Regional Monuments Office took measures to save this specific architectural site, and in 1999 the Hutterite Court in Sobotište was declared a monument zone. It consists of about 70 buildings, of which 7 national cultural monuments.
The priority aim of the project was the reconstruction of the national cultural monument Hutterite mill , which is owned by the village and forms the central dominant feature of the monument zone. In 2001, the roof of the mill from the Phare pre-accession funds was statically secured. Since then, the mill has fallen into disrepair.
In 2019, its comprehensive reconstruction began. The facade has been restored to its oldest late Renaissance form. At the same time, the original technical background of the mill was restored and in a hint of reconstruction, the mill wheel with a windbreak was restored. Thanks to the project, the mill became the first accessible monument with an extensive exhibition on the life of the Hutterites in Sobotište.
Information boards describing the most important Hutterite buildings were installed in the alleys of the monument zone.
In the Czech territory, any exposition was absent about the action of Hutterites in Bohemia. For this purpose, the reconstruction of the cellar in Vacenovice, which was used by Hutterites in the 16th century, was focused. The Hutterites settled in Vacenovice for less than a century. But during this time, Vacenovice became an important center for the production of Hutterite ceramics in Bohemia. The stay of the anabaptized in the village is documented by the largest preserved Hutterite kiln in Central Europe and archaeological finds. Apart from the cellars, no other architecture has been preserved in Bohemia after the Hutterites, so the reconstruction of the cellar for the given purpose is also of symbolic significance. The exposition presents the history of the anabaptized in Vacenovice, above the cellar there was an outdoor exposition about the life of the anabaptized in Bohemia.
The following collaborated on the creation of museum exhibitions:
Mgr. ThLic. Martin Hoferka, Th.D. – expert guarantor, historian, employee of the Záhorský Museum in Skalice, where he has long been engaged, among other things, in the research of Hutterites in Záhorie
Mgr. Dita Csütörtökyová, PhD. – ethnologist, custodian, worker of the Záhorský Museum in Skalica
Mgr. Ľubica Kadlec Melišová – project manager, as a volunteer in the Sobotište Monument Zone, implements projects for the restoration of listed buildings, author of the project In the Footsteps of Hutterites
PhDr. Alena Kalinová – specialist at the Ethnographic Institute of the Bohemian Museum in Brno, deputy head of the department, curator of the folk art collection (ceramics, glass, sculpture, glass paintings), is a leading expert on Hutterites ceramics in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, author of many articles and publications on the topic of Huttterite ceramics
PhDr. Jiří Pajer – historian, archaeologist and music folklorist, private researcher, worked at the Institute of Folk Culture in Strážnice, contributed to the reopening of the Town Museum in Strážnice, a leading Czech expert on Habans in Moravia and Slovakia, and participated in archaeological research in Sobotište, is the author of several publications on Hutterites
