Rogla, more specifically the Planja Hotel, offers a wonderful exploration of the past. The Pohorje Treasures Exhibition: Glassmaking presents a brief history of this handicraft in the Pohorje region, decorated with valuable glassware.
Glassmaking in Pohorje started flourishing at the beginning of the 19th century with the following glass factories:
- Rakovec near Vitanje,
- Gornji Limbuš (also known as the glass factory under Areh),
- Langersvald,
- Beneditov dol,
- Oplotnica and
- Josipdol, which collapsed in 1909 as the last glass factory on Pohorje. The higher timber prices and much cheaper Czech glass mostly contributed to the collapse of glassmaking.
5 interesting facts about glassmaking on Pohorje:
- The glassmaking has developed due to the abundance of silica sand, the basic element of glass mass, as well as the timber and water energy.
- The predecessor of Pohorje glass factories is a glass factory that operated in the Žice Charterhouse in the mid 17th century.
- The first glass factories on Pohorje were already established in the 17th and 18th centuries. We have very little information about them, and their products have unfortunately not been preserved.
- In addition to the useful glass, the Pohorje glass factories also produced the ground, engraved and painted glass, which was exported to the European countries and the Middle East.
- In addition to the local glassmakers and glassgrinders, many German and Czech workers worked in the Pohorje glass factories. They migrated from one glass factory to another in search of earnings, some settling on Pohorje and creating families.
