« 2025. # 1 (181)

The Ethnology Notebooks. 2025. № 1 (181), 133—144

UDK [738.011.26-033.6:39](477.87=511.141)”17/19″(09)

DOI https://doi.org/10.15407/

TRADITIONAL FOLK POTTERY IN THE HUNGARIAN SETTLEMENTS OF TRANSCARPATHIA

KESZ Barnabas

• ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8417-8441
• PhD, Associate Professor, Department of History and Social Sciences at the 
• Ferenc Rakóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education,
• 6, Kossuth square, 90202, Berehove, Ukraine,
• Contacts: e-mail: kesz.barnabas@kmf.org.ua

KESZ Margit

• ORCID ID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9738-2858
• PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Philology at the 
• Ferenc Rakóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian College of Higher Education,
• 6, Kossuth square, 90202, Berehove, Ukraine,
• Contacts: e-mail: kesz.margit@kmf.org.ua

Abstract. Transcarpathia is a multinational region with an extremely colorful culture, which belonged to several states throughout history. Until the beginning of the XXth century, in the settlements of the southwestern part of Transcarpathia, inhabited by Hungarians, pottery was one of the most common folk crafts, in addition to weaving and woodworking. Pottery, which was practiced at the level of handicraft in villages, and rose to the level of workshops and small industry in some settlements. In addition to the urban centers of pottery — Uzhgorod, Mukachevo, Beregove, Khust — some villages — Beregujfolu, Hudya, Shalanky — also became pottery centers, the masters of which maintained contacts with the craftsmen of neighboring regions. The object of this research is folk crafts, and the subject of research is ceramic products of Hungarian potters of Transcarpathia of the XVIII—XXth centuries. The purpose of this study was to determine the local features of the folk ceramics of Transcarpathia and any parallels or differences that can be found in relation to other landscape units and ethnic groups. Based on our main hypothesis, we assumed that, in addition to museum collections and church clenodiums, we can also find traces of pottery, which was widely used before the beginning of the XXth century, but which was suppressed by modern materials, in the villages of the studied region and in peasant farms, which are also an important segment of the folk culture of the region. The methodological basis of the research, in addition to the principle of historicism, contains proven methods of ethnography, such as retrospective, typological, complex analysis or, for example, elements of historical reconstruction. Territorially, the study covers the southwestern part of the current Transcarpathia, primarily Hungarian and mixed villages of the historical Ugocha county, and chronologically it covers the period from the end of the XVIIIth to the beginning of the XXth century. In addition to processing museum/archive materials and ethnographic literature, the source material for the research was the latest research, local observations of the authors, photo documents, and interviews with informants.

Keywords: Hungarians of Transcarpathia, centers of pottery, craft workshops, folk ceramics, pottery, earthenware, church clenodiums, folk decorative art.

Received 28.01.2025

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