Horezu ceramics. Craftsmanship and symbols of a UNESCO heritage element

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Horezu, county of Vâlcea, produces one of the most beautiful and refined ceramics in Romania. The traditional elements, the old shapes and the motifs preserved over the years, with the help from the knowledge and specific techniques, convert the ceramics here into objects of art and civilization. Since December 2012, the traditional Horezu ceramics, along with the techniques associated, has been included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Elements of Humanity. The legend of Horezu ceramics is linked to Constantin Brâncoveanu’s reign and his edifice, Hurezi Monastery, around which the pottery center was opened, meant to manufacture high quality products to satisfy the demands of a fastuous boyar court and also to promote the culture elements that define a medieval civilization at its peak in Wallachia. Given the natural conditions provided by the hilly landscape and the good quality clays, pottery can be assumed to have dated earlier than the 17th century, even continuing a neolithic tradition, from prehistoric times, evolving into the Daco‑Roman era and incorporating the Byzantine influences later, to reach a lavish character, with singular particularities during Brâncoveanu time, in a process of change and adjustment due to filtering and recontextualization of extralocal elements. Under the influence of other arts, the peasant potter’s vision is coerced into a path of new artistic expression, thus assuming a different route from the common use pottery to the refinement of Brâncoveanu style, present in architecture, painting, sculpture, art of metals, art of embroidery and tapestry or the miniatures of the manuscripts of that era.