The summer holiday season is a time of excursions for many of us, offering an opportunity to discover the immediate area and the wider region. Lower Silesia and the Karkonosze Mountains offer many possibilities: scenic hiking and cycling routes, and world-class historic sites.
The cross-border Via Fabrilis tourist trail runs through twenty-one centers located on the Polish and Czech sides of the Karkonosze and Jizera Mountains. The trail includes institutions involved in preserving and promoting traditional crafts characteristic of the region: pottery, glassmaking and weaving. At these locations, visitors can explore exhibitions, learn about production processes and take part in workshops devoted to various traditional crafts.
On the Polish side of the border, the trail includes the following towns and cities: Bolesławiec (a world-renowned center of ceramics), Tomaszów Bolesławiecki (art glass), Lwówek Śląski (brewing), weaving centers Wleń, Lubomierz and Jelenia Góra, mountain glassmaking centers Piechowice and Szklarska Poręba, as well as Kowary (mining) and Karpacz (various crafts), along with towns farther west: Lubań (linen production and pewter-making) and Zgorzelec (pottery and linen production).
The Czech section of the trail includes Vrchlabí (weaving), Jilemnice (weaving and glassmaking), centers associated with the production of glass beads and ornaments, such as Poniklá, Paseky nad Jizerou and Vysoké nad Jizerou, as well as Harrachov (glassmaking and brewing). New centers include Rokytnice nad Jizerou, Horní Marsov (various crafts), Františkov (wooden handicrafts) and Voletiny (weaving).
The idea for the Via Fabrilis craft traditions trail emerged several years ago during talks between representatives of the Museum of Ceramics and the Karkonosze Museum in Vrchlabí. The institutions moved from the idea to the implementation of a joint project aimed at preserving and promoting their shared cultural heritage, particularly traditional crafts characteristic of and associated with the Karkonosze region for centuries. The project has received considerable approval from tourists and residents of the region.
Workshops for young people, held in many towns and cities across the region, are one way of promoting traditional crafts. Since the beginning of the season, the project partners have taken part in numerous outdoor events, offering free handicraft demonstrations. The workshops are easy to spot because they have a distinctive and rather unusual format. A wooden wagon with iron-rimmed wheels serves as their base; in front of it, visitors can take part in pottery-wheel throwing, ceramic decorating and jewelry-making workshops.
Here, anyone can feel like a traditional craftsperson and try their hand at making a clay vessel, painting bisque pieces or creating ornaments.
The Via Fabrilis craftsmen’s wagon has already visited, among other places, Wleń (the 800th anniversary of the granting of municipal rights to Wleń, 1214–2014), Lwówek Śląski (Lwówek Agate Summer), Karpacz (the 170th anniversary of the reconsecration of the Wang Church in Karpacz), Lubomierz (the National Festival of Comedy Films) and Szklarska Poręba (the Art.Skwer Festival). Further events will take place on August 22–24 in Bolesławiec (the Bolesławiec Ceramic Festival) and on August 30–31 in Zgorzelec (Jakuby).
Participation in the workshops is free of charge. Promotional materials and detailed information about the VIA FABRILIS Craft Traditions Trail are also available at the stand.
The activities are carried out as part of the “VIA FABRILIS Craft Traditions Trail II” project, co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme of Cross-Border Cooperation Czech Republic–Poland 2007–2013.