Pottery Forged by Fire and Time

Pottery making has a long tradition in Zlakusa village, involving a number of techniques, types and shapes. The pottery makers from this village in western Serbia have gained renown that goes beyond the country’s borders.

By Zlatica Ivković
Photo by Milan Melka

As the summer dusk silently creeps along the countryside, a neverending battle continues in the white-hot hearth of Zlakusa potter Milojko Nikitović. The light rips through the darkness as the contours of a clay object become visible through the licking flames. The cracking sound alters with complete silence. Is this the rhythm of the Earth that is heard, one of toil and joy, of experience? Is it a message or a memory descended from our ancestors, or is it, as it sometimes seems, just our imagination that perceives all kinds of images in randomly shaped forms and shadows, when the night casts its spell on us?

As a simple contour assumes shape on the potter’s wheel, even of a most ordinary flower pot intended for the local market, one can easily discern one of man’s oldest activities, embodying his millennial bond with the Earth, from the clay-stained hands sliding against the object’s smooth surface. And what is it that the potter sells when he takes colourful pitchers, jugs, bowls, waterpots, dishes and flasks to the market...? As Macedonian poet Blaže Koneski says: "He sells vestiges of his touch, parts of his own and the Earth’s warmth, the rhythm of his pulse and the breath and murmur of his mysterious thoughts", as he turns the wheel and muses the object’s shape and colour.

The slow baking of the clay in the open fire -- a technique over four centuries old -- is a unique feature here in the Balkans. It has been preserved only in Zlakusa village. For centuries, scores of families in this small village near Užice have been scrupulously cultivating the art of pottery, passing it on from one generation to the next, keeping the ancient skill of making earthenware alive, including vessels, pots, pans for baking bread and roasting coffee... The vessels are made of natural clay and calcite stone that give an excellent taste and aroma to foods prepared in them.

In addition to baking in open fire, the other special feature of Zlakusa pottery lies in the material used to make it. The clay is dug in the village of Vranjani, northwest of Požega, from a depth of between two and eight metres. It is then processed, mixed with whitish stone – calcite, which is obtained from a quarry that is more than 200 years old in the neighbouring village of Rupeljevo. The clay is then mixed with ground calcite in equal proportions. This affords, as the potters say, the creation of rather large forms. After baking, the vessels are subject to hardening, that is they are soaked in a mixture made of corn, barley or oat flour. These brown-colour vessels are used to make the famous foods prepared on the hearth fire.

But there are other reasons to visit Zlakusa. This picturesque place, so keen on preserving its traditions, has a soul one seldom comes across. As the seasons change - like in a kaleidoscope - so does the landscape change, as Nature and the village’s hospitable people unselfishly offer gifts: meadows, medicinal herbs, forest strawberries and mushrooms; and the orchards - a variety of fruits, and the hard-working villagers - top-quality honey, traditional Užice brandy, preserves, cheese, kajmak (a type of thick dairy cream), smoked ham...

And although many other things attract one’s attention in Zlakusa and its environment abundantly endowed by Nature, the ultimate destination is Terzića Avlija Ethno Park, a village yard at the foot of a beech tree forest. The blue windows decorated with flowers peering into rooms, garden plants left freely to step across the threshold give the impression one has entered a Hansen and Gretchen-like fairy tale among marzipan houses. Only, instead of sweets, one finds all manner of other delicacies from the Užice region.

Terzića Avlija is a typical rural estate - formerly with two houses: one for everyday family use and the other in which guests were received and served for the family patron saint day and other holidays, and which includes a number of auxiliary facilities. The first village school was opened before and during World War II in one of the houses. Today, it is transformed into an Ethno Museum and permanent exhibition space.

Three years ago, the founding assembly of the ethno association called Zavičaj was held in Terzića Avlija. The association has folklore groups, authentic song and dance groups, pottery, weaving and painting sections, as there are many plans to enrich this variety with new concepts.

Also, Terzića Avlija and Zavičaj are organising and hosting two big events that have since been quite well known abroad too: the Songs and Dances of Zlakusa Assembly of Authentic Creative Work and the Autumn in Zlakusa - a cultural and arts event.

Near Zlakusa is the Potpećka Cave with the highest grotto in Serbia (72 metres). The upper part of the cave, measuring 555 metres and accessible by a 700-step spiral path, is open to tourists. The other cave section, in which the cave decoration formation is still ongoing, has a large number of hallways and halls. In terms of the wealth of cave decorations, the Potpećka Cave falls into a very rare type of karst caves.