The Stonemason Tradition in Slatina
The working of stone and its use for human needs has over the centuries become an important element of human culture. It is through stone and its working that we have knowledge of how people lived. This is attested to by the centuries-old constructions of settlements, wayside shrines, crosses, fountains and many other examples of the 'stone heritage'.
Stonemasonry in the Blatná highlands has a centuries-old tradition. The medieval building lodges of the Strakonice Knights Hospitaller and the Nepomuk Cistercians already drew on the quality of the local granite. Their tradition was continued by a number of further stonemason masters. From 1551 we have a record of Master Odra, a stonemason from Blatná; in 1665 the stonemason foreman Johanes Donát from Lnáře is mentioned, who worked chiefly on the construction of the local monastery; and Master Dominik Fontána, who in 1681 worked on the manor house in Bezděkov. Many buildings in the surrounding area were created by the hands of other outstanding stonemason masters: Simon Posser (1685), Kašpar Veselý (1689) and especially Marek Lanckn from Salzburg (1689). The Kadov stonemason Josef Kubát, mentioned in 1737, carried out the reconstruction of the Kadov church. The baroque character of the Lnáře buildings was given by Jan Kelber (1788). Well-known were the stonemason families of the Bereks, Krejčůs and Fialas.
In the 18th and 19th centuries dozens of small quarries were opened in the zone from Kadov through Slatina to Lažany Defurovy and Maňovice for occasional granite quarrying. Of the larger ones, let us name the Slatina quarry, in which during the construction of the Imperial and Royal railway lines a group of Italian stonemasons worked under Master Leonardo Gritti. Later the brothers Matěj and Tomáš Vančura quarried here and worked stone for buildings in Pest (today's Budapest); most recently Václav Pešule. After nationalisation the Slatina quarry belonged to the stone industry enterprise in Příbram; today it is in the hands of an Austrian entrepreneur.
After the construction of the railway line through Blatná in 1899, large sales opportunities opened up for stonemason products. A number of stonemason companies were established in the Blatná area, among them the firm of Jan Baron in Kadov. In order to better market their products, a cooperative for the sale of granite was founded in Kadov in 1921 under the name 'South Bohemian Stone Industry'. It ceased operations in 1927. While the Slatina quarry has been in continuous operation for decades and is expanding, no such activity has existed in Kadov for a long time.
Today the latest technologies are used in quarrying and processing granite; formerly all work was done predominantly by hand. Nevertheless, skilled stonemasons were able to produce a wide range of products — paving stones, kerb stones, bollards, boundary markers, steps, window sills, entrance and window frames (reveals), cornices, bridge blocks, monuments, columns, troughs, water features and other products. These were products that were in fact works of art by each individual stonemason. Well-known stonemason families in Slatina included above all the Valachs, Klepses, Zoubeks and others.
Today's stonemasons in Slatina continue in the footsteps of their excellent predecessors. In addition to a wide range of products they are able to create works of art — let us mention at least the monument to Voskovec and Werich at Olšany Cemetery, the steps from Charles Bridge to Kampa Island in Prague, the monument to the Bishop of Košice, various memorial plaques and other products.
As a reminder of the stonemason tradition in Slatina and its surroundings, the Stonemason Festival project — the Slatina Milestone — was established.