Medieval Glass from Bratislava/Slovakia

Hedvika Sedlkov (Archaia Brno o.p.s.), Petra imoniov Koov and Branislav Lesk (Institut for Monument Preservation, Bratislava)

Nearly everything known about the development of Bratislava derives from archaeological research carried
out in the protected urban zone since the 1970s. To date, the historical centre of the city has yielded about
30 series of glass, of which 18 have been analysed.
First half of the 12th century: Written records refer to a real-estate transaction
on land intended for future town.
1160s1170s: Arrival of settlers from Romance and German lands.
Before 1241: The evolution of medieval towns peaked around mid-13th century
After 1241: Bratislava becomes a Hungarian border town.
1291: Bratislava is formally granted municipal status by King Ondrej/Endreas III.
1379: The Bratislava tax register makes its first mention of a glassmaker.
1465/1467c. 1491: Universitas Istropolitana, the earliest university in Slovakia, established by Matthias
Corvinus in Bratislava.
15631848: Bratislava is both capital and coronation town of Hungary (from 1526 Hungary falls under the
rule of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy).
The earliest archaeological finds of glass on the territory of medieval Bratislava are
dated to the 9th12th centuries.
Glass vessels appear in the first half of the 13th century. Until
the end of the century, brown glass products bottles with
body-tubular ring and beakers with large snail-like prunts are
very common. In the course of the 13th century, these vessels
appeared around the central Danube, in western Hungary,
Lower Austria and Moravia. Series from Bratislava are plentiful
and such vessels are also known from other Slovak towns.

1. Bratislava (Slovakia), 2. Brno (Czech Republic), 3. Vienna (Austria), 4. Budapest

(Hungary), 5. Venice (Italy), 6. Prag (Czech Republic)

Rings from Hlavn nmestie Square and a bronze ring

with a glass inset, Rudnayovo nmestie Square 4.
12th century.

Bottle with body-tubular ring,

variant with a barrel-shaped
body popular in the countries
of former Yugoslavia and in
Hungary. It is virtually unknown
in Moravia and does not appear
farther west.

Ventrska Street 7, first half of the 13th

century (to date, the earliest glass vessel
from Bratislava).

1. Bratislava Castle, 2. Old Town Hall, 3. Radnin Street1, 4. Hlavn nmestie

Square2, 5. Urulnsk Street 9, 6. Sedlrsk Street 4, 7. Sedlrsk Street 6,
8. Michalsk Street6, 9. Pansk Street 16, 10. Pansk Street 1921, 11. Urulnsk
Street 6, 12. Ventrska Street 5, 13. Ventrska Street 7, 14. Ventrska Street 3,
15. Farsk Street convent of the Order of St.Clare, 16. Frantiknsk nm. Square 6.

Refuse pit at Radnin Street 1, second half of the 13th century. This contained pieces and body fragments of at least 20 prunted beakers (only three of them made of colourless
or yellowish glass) and at least 30 bottles with body-tubular ring and cylindrical body. The find may tentatively be placed in the context of the wedding of Czech King Pemysl
Otakar II and Hungarian Princess Kunhuta, held in Bratislava in 1261.

Radnin Street 1, second half of the 13th century.

Fragment of a Venetian
beaker from the final
filling of a refuse pit,
around 1300. Fragment
of another beaker from
another feature on the
same plot.

Vessels made of colourless glass, known as called Venetian, were imported to Bratislava from the late 13th century onwards. Major series come from a convent of the
Order of St.Clare (established in 1290), Frantiknsk nmst Square 6, Sedlrska Street 6, the Old Town Hall and dwellings of the patritiate in Ventrska Street.

Bottles with body-tubular ring. There are also many finds of bottles with body-tubular
ring of heavily corroded (potash) glass, which indicates that they were manufactured
in central Europe.

Prunted beakers usually appear in several variants.

Plain beakers and beakers with optic-blown decoration.

The popularity of bottles

with bodytubular ring in
Slovakia is demonstrated
by a unique appearance
in a mural. Church
in
Kocelovce,
1380
1390
(Hannig
2009,
Fig.246,3).

Two almost-complete enamelled beakers and two fragments from Radnin Street1 Outstanding items include a small bottle with handles of blue and colourless glass on
(above) bear witness to frequent contacts with Venice.
a stem (convent of the Order of St.Clare), a kutrolf with four necks (Frantiknsk
nmst) and a ribbed goblet (Sedlrska 6). An identical kutrolf and goblet have been
found in Brno/Moravia.

Frantiknsk nmst Square 6, late 13th centuryfirst

half of the 14th century.

Luxury glass is also represented by sets of a Meov ewer, two Nuremberg bottles
and three ribbed cups. These vessels were widespread in a broad belt along the Danube
and were accoutrements of the social elite.

Small bottles of light blue-green glass appeared in a refuse pit near the convent of the
Order of St.Clare and other refuse pits in Bratislava. Glass of this shade has yet to be
recorded from other locations in Slovakia and Moravia.

Sedlrska Street 6, late 13th centuryfirst

half of the 14th century.

The possible existence of a chemistry

laboratory in the convent of the Order of
St.Clare is supported by a fragment of an
alembic and a number of fragments of large
and small bottles, all of quality colourless
glass, as well as some heavilycorroded
light green glass.

The oldest glass alembic

from
central
Europe
(c.1290a.q. 1350).

Glass imported to Bratislava, Slovakia, in the 13th and 14th centuries was identical to Contacts with a group of German glassworks starting in the late 15th century onwards
are illustrated by prunted beakers (krautstrunk and stangenglas), now heavily corroded.
that found in neighbouring countries, especially Moravia.
From the 15th century onwards, the assortment of glass in the two countries shows They occur frequently in Vienna, less so in Moravia.
significant differences, arising out of alternative approaches to the development
of glassmaking in Europe, as well as changes in national economic and political
orientation.
The products of Czech and Moravian glassworks prevailed in Moravia (notably tall
beakers with prunts).
There was much in common types and shapes between the glass in Vienna and
Budapest and Slovakia. Written records indicate that a number of glassworks were
active in Slovakia from the mid-14th century onwards. However, their products cannot
be identified with any surety.
Highly limited contacts with Bohemia are
indicated by rare finds of tall, prunted
beakers. To date, they are known from
only Bratislava and Trnava, where they
have been linked to the Hussite armies.

Ventrska Street 5 and Michalsk Street 6.

Ventrska Street 3

Bottles with body-tubular ring, their glass both clear and heavily-corroded, occurred in
Bratislava until the first half of the 16th century.
Table flasks with ribs and a bowled rim decorated in blue or colourless threads, were
very popular. They were also common in Vienna and Hungary, and the majority of
them now appear in heavily-corroded glass.

Representation of a stangenglas (or a tall prunted

beaker) in the Church of St.James, Levoa, 13801400
(Hannig 2009, Fig.219,4).

Frantiknsk nmst Square 6, Ventrsk Street 5.

Pansk Street 16 and
Ventrska Street 3.

Beakers in various forms reached Bratislava in the early 16th century, probably from glassworks in Schwarzwald/Germany. Large quantities of these vessels are known from
Austria (Salzburg, Vienna), while in Moravia they have chiefly been found in the homesteads of Anabaptists, a religious group who moved in from southern Germany and
Switzerland.

Ventrska Street 7.

Michalsk Street 6, ca 1500.

Series from the early 16th century feature a number of versions of ribbed table flasks, originally blue-green and green glass, now heavily corroded.

Pansk Street 16, Sedlrska Street 4 and Ventrska Street 7.

Luxury glass from Venice started to be imported to what is now Slovakia during the reign of Matthias Corvinus in Hungary (14591490).

Bratislava Castle and Sedlrska 4.

The town councillors of Bardejov ordered a set of beakers from Venice. They were Bibliography
decorated with the Bardejov emblem, and two of them survive, held by the City Hannig, R. 2009: Glaschronologie Nordostbayerns vom 14. bis zum frhen 17. Jahrhundert. Ausgewhlte
Grabungsfunde aus Amberg und Regensburg (Oberpfalz). Monographien der Archologischen Staatssammlung
museum of Bardjov.
Mnchen Band III.

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The adoption of Venetian shapes by local

glassworks from the late 15th century
onwards is illustrated by goblets of
greenish glass from Bratislava and Trnava.
Five glassworks were active in Slovakia at
that time.
Bratislava was a major European trade centre,
thanks largely to its location by the River
Danube. This was reflected in the amount
of glass in the town.
Although the study of Bratislavas glass started in the 1980s, it was only extensive
archaeological research after 1990 that yielded sufficient material to enable a more
detailed insight into the range and development of glass in the town over the course
of more than three centuries. In the 13th and 14th centuries, quality glass from Venice/
Italy was imported to Bratislava, as well as to Moravia. The 15th century saw a decline
in the use of glass, although the end of the century was marked by another surge.
Apart from luxury Venetian products, glass of a typology related to Austria/Vienna
and Hungary/Budapest also occurred. It may be presumed that a number of items
come from local glassworks, only known from written records. During the early 16th
century, there also appeared products made in glassworks in Schwarzwald and in
Austrian towns.

Koov, P. 2005: Kontakty medzi Talianskom a zemm dnenho Slovenska v oblasti sklrskej produkcie na
prelomu stredoveku a novoveku Kontakte zwischen Italien und dem heutigen Gebiet der Slowakei im Bereich der
Glasproduktion im Mittelalter und der frhen Neuzeit. In: Archaeologia historica 30, 497506. Brno.
Plach, V. Nechvtal, B. 1980: Stredovek sklo zBratislavy (Sbor zo Starej Radnice) Mittelalterliches Glas aus
Bratislava (Fundkomplex aus dem Alten Rathaus). In: Pamtky archeologick LXXI, 433. Praha.
Hedvika Sedlkov
Archaia Brno o.p.s.
Bezruova 15
602 00 Brno, Czech Republik
hedvika.glass@seznam.cz
www.archaiabrno.org

Petra imoniov Koov

Mestsk stav ochrany pamiatok/
Institut for Monument Preservation
Bratislava
Urulnska 9
81101 Bratislava, Slowakia
almos@post.cz
www.muop.bratislava.sk

Branislav Lesk
Mestsk stav ochrany pamiatok/
Institut for Monument Preservation
Bratislava
Urulnska 9
81101 Bratislava, Slowakia
branislav.lesak@gmail.com
www.muop.bratislava.sk