Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:02:38and technique, the
00:03:30The national archive
00:04:22As strange as it may seem, these idyllic pictures were taken in a factory
00:04:25area, serving as the backdrop for the life of a large
00:04:29industrial family. Every corner evokes the activity
00:04:32that took place within these walls. The
00:04:36family worked and lived here on the factory grounds from the
00:04:401860s, when the small manufactory began to
00:04:43grow.
00:04:47Everything was different for us than in other families. Our beautiful
00:04:51reception room bore the marks of my father's
00:04:55individuality. The entire house was decorated with expertise
00:04:58and good taste.
00:05:02Teréz's words about her childhood are illustrated by the memorial
00:05:06room set up in the museum, as well as her father's portrait,
00:05:09painted on ceramic by Bertalan Székely. Vilmos Zsolnay, the one who
00:05:13almost single-handedly forged
00:05:14his empire.
00:05:22It is my intention to establish a factory
00:05:25on the site of my well-known Pécs pottery workshop
00:05:28and commercial nursery that will
00:05:31meet all modern requirements
00:05:35in every respect. I am convinced that the city
00:05:39council will gladly welcome any initiative that
00:05:42promotes industrial development and thus
00:05:45ensures prosperity. I only wish
00:05:48to note that my fireproof products may be needed
00:05:52by any factory or workshop that uses
00:05:55kilns. The factory will also be of public
00:05:59benefit because it will employ a significant number of
00:06:02workers, thus helping
00:06:04many in need.
00:06:16It took a lot of work for the factory to grow into such a large
00:06:20enterprise over time. Initially, most of the porcelain
00:06:23objects were made following rural prototypes. In the
00:06:261870s, peasant pottery workshops produced the
00:06:30chosen pieces. At that time, ethnographic
00:06:34collecting became fashionable, and such jugs and pitchers
00:06:37found their way into bourgeois homes. The Zsolnay family adopted
00:06:40the forms, stylized the objects with which they
00:06:44achieved their first
00:06:45successes.
00:06:49At the Vienna World Exhibition, Emperor Franz Joseph also noticed
00:06:53the masterpieces, so the king even visited
00:06:56the factory. The Paris World Exhibition
00:06:58in 1878 finally opened the doors
00:07:01to foreign countries. Our father calmly accepted the
00:07:05gold medal he had earned with his work. The French
00:07:08Legion of Honor, however, brought him great joy.
00:07:11His pride, not vanity, but rather the feeling
00:07:15of triumph, intensified after many years of hard struggle
00:07:18among people who did not believe in his enterprise,
00:07:21ridiculed him, and finally received
00:07:24full recognition
00:07:25worldwide.
00:07:32Urn vases, once popular figures, were made for wealthy
00:07:36customers at home and abroad, and these are just
00:07:39a few examples from the museum garden.
00:07:48In form, style,
00:07:51repertoire expanded, and the wealthy clientele
00:07:54greatly favored these historicizing pieces. Initially,
00:07:57somber-toned paintings were followed by more brilliant ones.
00:08:01Vilmos persistently perfected the majolica
00:08:03glaze to make it suitable for artistic
00:08:06painting.
00:08:13These images depict the Art Nouveau period of the
00:08:16Zsolnay factory. The metallic-sheen vases, made
00:08:19by hand, were accessories in wealthy bourgeois
00:08:22homes. Other ornate items went to
00:08:26noble homes. This dinnerware set was made
00:08:29for the German
00:08:30Hoenloe family.
00:08:35Unique creations and series products, whose
00:08:38memory was preserved in the factory books called "Fazon and Decor books".
00:08:44Nicknacks intended for petty bourgeois homes from over 100 years
00:08:47of production, objects that once adorned dining
00:08:50tables. The Viennese merchant Wallis made a good
00:08:53deal, becoming the exclusive distributor of Zsolnay
00:08:56in Austria. A depot also opened on Váci
00:08:59Street. Nevertheless, by the end of the last century, 80%
00:09:02of production went abroad with the five-towered trademark
00:09:06that evoked
00:09:07Pécs.
00:09:17The most beautiful buildings in the city bear the hallmark of the Zsolnay family,
00:09:21such as the former Pécs Savings Bank in Széchenyi Square.
00:09:24Zsolnay first appeared before the world at the Vienna Exhibition
00:09:28with architectural ceramics. He painstakingly experimented
00:09:32to develop a majolica glazed tile that was resistant to
00:09:36weather, and in Pécs we can see more and more beautiful
00:09:38variations of it.
00:09:44In the city, György Vasvári, a wealthy iron merchant, was the biggest
00:09:47customer of the factory's products. His villa
00:09:50is adorned with magnificent Zsolnay ceramics here
00:09:53above Pécs. Just like Mr. Sipőc's still operating
00:09:57pharmacy here in the heart of the city.
00:10:09The Black Man's Pharmacy was designed by Vilmos's nephew, Gyula Zsolnay.
00:10:13Here, the objects serve not only beauty but also practical
00:10:16function.
00:10:28The ornamental fountain was donated to the city
00:10:31by Vilmos's son, Miklós. The animal figures were modeled
00:10:34after the famous golden vessels found in Nagyszentmiklós.
00:10:38Its designer was the Pécs architect Andor
00:10:40Pilty.
00:10:46The Ottoman world may be long gone from Pécs, but the factory
00:10:50brought Turkish-Oriental objects into fashion as well,
00:10:54openwork pieces imitating metalware.
00:10:59Through their travels and purchases, the Zsolnay family was open
00:11:02to foreign forms. The jug
00:11:05evokes Greece, these motifs on a beautiful
00:11:09piece from the primeval forest series, and the rich
00:11:12factory museum is now only a photograph that captures
00:11:16their famous oriental collection throughout
00:11:18Europe. The Persian-patterned jug was made
00:11:22in the late 90s with the famous glaze whose
00:11:25secret competitors tried in vain to discover. The
00:11:29Eosin glaze, requiring special firing techniques, and meticulous
00:11:32painting created the factory's famous Eosin
00:11:36objects, with forms that were sometimes overdecorated and sometimes
00:11:39simpler, admired pieces at exhibitions
00:11:43and fairs.
00:11:46At a time when marketing as a concept was completely
00:11:50unknown, the Zsolnay family was very good at
00:11:53marketing. They sensed the
00:11:56need and started producing
00:11:59products that could be sold well,
00:12:02and for example, by developing Eosin,
00:12:05which is a global patent,
00:12:08they were able to bring a new product to the market
00:12:12in which they had no competitors.
00:12:15My great-grandfather was Vilmos Zsolnay, and Vilmos
00:12:18Zsolnay had three children, Teréz, Júlia
00:12:22and Miklós. Miklós Zsolnay studied
00:12:25commerce in Graz, and already
00:12:28at the age of 19 or 20, he represented the factory
00:12:32at the Paris World Exhibition, so it's wonderful how young
00:12:35people were already involved in the work. Teréz
00:12:39and Júlia Zsolnay at the age of 20-21
00:12:42were already designing patterns for their father
00:12:45in the factory. They never studied, they couldn't draw originally,
00:12:48and yet they were able to design these wonderful
00:12:51things.
00:13:08Teréz took care of the factory museum, and she had one of the
00:13:11largest ethnographic collections
00:13:13in the country.
00:13:16She married a geologist who was also involved in the
00:13:18family business, discovering clay mines nearby
00:13:22and far away.
00:13:28Júlia's husband, a Polish architect, Tadeusz Sikorski,
00:13:32designed the Mausoleum, which, at least according
00:13:35to the ideas of the time, was intended as the family's final resting place.
00:13:49On the sarcophagus, accompanied by family members, Vilmos Zsolnay
00:13:53offers his life's work to the goddess Minerva. It
00:13:56was exactly 1900 when his active life
00:14:00came to an end.
00:14:06After Vilmos Zsolnay's death, his son Miklós entered into
00:14:09an inheritance agreement with his two sisters,
00:14:12Teréz and Júlia. According to this, Miklós became
00:14:16the sole owner of the factory. The whole family continued
00:14:20to participate in the company's activities. Later, Vilmos
00:14:23Zsolnay's grandchildren also joined the work.
00:14:30The apprentice school held a significant place, as the Zsolnay family
00:14:34always trained their own skilled workforce.
00:14:38The factory complex was also an exhibition area,
00:14:41where the dear customer could choose everything from
00:14:44decorative items to building elements. Architects also visited frequently.
00:14:48Ödön Lechner had a good friendship with Vilmos
00:14:51Zsolnay. He decorated the Museum of Applied Arts,
00:14:55which he designed, and a host of other buildings in the country
00:14:58with ceramics ordered
00:14:59from the Zsolnay factory.
00:15:09For the Geological Institute's palace on Stefánia Road,
00:15:13special decorative elements and a huge quantity of
00:15:17majolica tiles were needed. Only the blue of the sky can
00:15:20compete with the azurite blue color of the Pyrogranite
00:15:23chimneys and the entire roof.
00:15:36My companions on the moon.
00:16:00Starting from the Parliament building, we could list many
00:16:03famous buildings adorned with Zsolnay's
00:16:05works. Vilmos was not only
00:16:09friends with architects, renowned painters
00:16:12worked in his factory. Ármin Klein often
00:16:15created classical, sometimes Hungarian-style figures,
00:16:19some of which remain distinctive
00:16:21motifs to this day.
00:16:27Ripple Ronai, who, among others, designed a dinner set for
00:16:31Count Andrássy, also spent a longer
00:16:33time here. The ceramic paintings were
00:16:37famous, which could compete with the most nuanced oil paintings. Their true
00:16:41colors unfolded in the depths of the kiln during
00:16:44firing.
00:16:50The sculptor Miklós Ligeti also had a close connection
00:16:54with the Zsolnay house. According to his plans,
00:16:58sculptures and all ceramic decorations and tiles
00:17:01were used in the thermal
00:17:03bath of the former Szent Gellért Hotel.
00:17:16Among the clients in the construction boom at the end of the century
00:17:19were many aspiring industrialists and entrepreneurs,
00:17:23who, like Vilmos, built their reputation and
00:17:26wealth with diligent work.
00:17:29Such was the champagne producer József Törley, who is greeted
00:17:32with champagne by his followers in the former hall of his
00:17:36factory, Zsolnay's tile picture.
00:17:45This house, which later became known as the Arizona
00:17:48cabaret, belonged to a famous photographer, Manó Mai.
00:17:52The builder couldn't give up, all the ceramics for
00:17:55the house were ordered from Zsolnay.
00:18:08The domed elephant house truly became a symbol of
00:18:11the Pest Zoo, when the garden, which had struggled
00:18:15with lack of funds for a long time, was built in its present
00:18:18form, the company sold the covering tiles at a great discount for the thick-skinned inhabitants.
00:18:33In Pécs, or in Zsolnay's Budapest architectural office,
00:18:37everyone could choose from the mass-produced elements.
00:18:40For the largest, often state-commissioned projects,
00:18:43almost every detail was
00:18:45custom-made.
00:18:49Town Hall in Kecskemét, with the well-known majolica
00:18:51cladding, and in Kiskunfélegyháza, where
00:18:55the Hungarian ornamentation virtually covers
00:18:57the facade.
00:19:04After World War I, the Zsolnay family not only
00:19:07lost their clay mines, but in the worse economic
00:19:11situation, their customer base also dwindled. Artistic
00:19:15ceramics were mostly created towards the end of the 1940s. Meanwhile,
00:19:18commercial porcelain was made for display cases, and industrial
00:19:22goods, such as porcelain insulators, had been a significant
00:19:38This orphaned factory initially operated as a subsidiary
00:19:40of the Pécs Zsolnay company. The Budapest
00:19:43company's goal, according to the foundation, was primarily
00:19:47the production and sale of wall cladding
00:19:49faience sheets.
00:19:53Family records already mentioned that in '85,
00:19:57Zsolnay Virmos wanted to establish a factory in Pest.
00:19:59In '42, when they started to expand the Pest
00:20:02factory, I also had to go to the
00:20:06Pest factory, and there, I didn't supervise the construction,
00:20:09but I had to assist with material procurement, and the main
00:20:13goal was to get to know the equipment, the new equipment
00:20:17that was being built, because at that time, the tunnel kiln
00:20:20was still a novelty, and right up until the nationalization,
00:20:23I was involved in this construction.
00:20:27On Good Friday, I went to the factory to finish my work,
00:20:31and they told me that it had been nationalized.
00:20:34Then I had to plan the
00:20:37internal work for its completion.
00:20:40After that, the moment the kiln was finished,
00:20:43I received my
00:20:44dismissal notice.
00:20:54Recently, the machines stopped at the Budapest porcelain
00:20:57factory, which could not compete with the flood
00:21:00of imports, and is waiting for a new owner, or perhaps
00:21:04demolition.
00:21:14Until the nationalization of the Pécs factory, production was
00:21:17almost equally divided between insulators and tableware manufacturing.
00:21:21"In the era of large plan fulfillments, which of
00:21:24course was the death of artistic work, industrial porcelain
00:21:28became dominant. It seemed
00:21:30that the famous Zsolnay ceramics were doomed.
00:21:38Nowadays, white porcelain, i.e., tableware for households,
00:21:42represents a quarter of production. Another quarter consists of
00:21:46decorative items, which are nowhere near as popular as they once were.
00:21:54"The old techniques, gilding, the Eosin, which our great
00:21:58predecessors worked on so much, were long condemned
00:22:01to oblivion, and thus it is not easy
00:22:14What would Vilmos Zsolnay say to the factory's current
00:22:18showroom, which presents of the new
00:22:21produce? We don't know. There are a few timeless
00:22:24pieces among them, they are the great survivors, like the
00:22:28shepherd, who has been sad for decades.
00:22:36In the Zsolnay Museum's warehouse, witnesses of various
00:22:40eras line the shelves. This is a real historical
00:22:44tableau, whose characters at one time were deemed
00:22:47suitable for pouring into porcelain.
00:23:00The Pécs factory complex, this unique industrial historical
00:23:03treasure, is now under monument protection
00:23:07after extensive intervention by the descendants,
00:23:10a faithful mirror of the
00:23:12past and a distorted mirror of the present.
00:23:21The Mausoleum was intended for eternity,
00:23:24but the grave robbers thought
00:23:26otherwise. Vilmos's sarcophagus, however, proved
00:23:30too strong, they could not
00:23:31break it open.
00:23:35Anyone could take a small piece of material from the fence,
00:23:39which the new director allowed after nationalization. Fortunately,
00:23:43the factory garden remained
00:23:44and survived everything, including the factory itself.
00:23:50This nearly 150-year-old factory has a very
00:23:53sad fate. The situation is that the problems started
00:23:57when its independence was abolished and it became
00:24:00one of the factories of the so-called Fine Ceramic Industrial
00:24:04Works. It didn't have to sell, only produce. The film
00:24:08sold everything. A market-oriented mindset didn't
00:24:12develop. In addition, its
00:24:14technology is completely outdated.
00:24:17Porcelain is fired in kilns built in 1950,
00:24:21sometimes without much success. So, on
00:24:24one side, there's a
00:24:27technological crash, so to speak. On the other
00:24:31side, the state, as owner, doesn't help
00:24:34the factory. Now, the era of Münchausen
00:24:37is over, at least in economic life. This company
00:24:41cannot pull itself out of the rut by its own
00:24:44bootstraps. 300-400 million Forints would be needed
00:24:48to repay its debts and to tech...
00:24:51it also has very big problems, as the domestic market has shrunk
00:24:55by about 30%. Strong foreign marketing
00:24:59work would be needed to replace this lost
00:25:02volume with exports abroad.
00:25:05Unfortunately, the
00:25:08factory does not have the foreign recognition, or rather,
00:25:12the factory's products do not have the recognition they should,
00:25:16precisely because it operated as a factory and not
00:25:19as an independent company. The decision is
00:25:22in the owner's hands,
00:25:25especially since it has been advertised for privatization
00:25:29four or five times already.
00:25:32I respect the entire past,
00:25:35and that's probably why I've been connected to the Zsolnay
00:25:39factory for over 30 years. We are currently going
00:25:42through a very difficult period, when
00:25:46everyone has bread worries, it's obviously
00:25:49not a priority to buy a dinnerware
00:25:53set, or a flowerpot,
00:25:56or a flower holder that... there's a small
00:25:59segment that might be able to afford
00:26:02it. Now there are investments,
00:26:05so since I'm
00:26:08very wisely following the
00:26:10old Zsolnay,
00:26:12whom I greatly respect,
00:26:15he was versatile, he already knew back then
00:26:18that one had to live on several legs, so
00:26:22to Eosin decorative objects,
00:26:25he dealt with everything, whatever was in demand at the time.
00:26:28Now I'm working in the pyrogranite department, so this is
00:26:32an architectural decorative
00:26:35material, things that go into the building's
00:26:38environment can be realized from it. And thank
00:26:42because there are new constructions, new investments,
00:26:45and so on.
00:26:49Here and there, the Pyrogranite roof shines beautifully,
00:26:53evoking the heyday of Zsolnay of Pécs. They have been
00:26:56renovated in the city, enhancing the atmosphere
00:26:59of Pécs, but many are still wondering what awaits
00:27:02the factory and its future. Unfortunately,
00:27:05at the Pest factory, we experienced
00:27:08that monument protection is worthless. So
00:27:11we are in doubt about what will happen to the Pécs factory, because
00:27:15the factory possesses all the shape books, decor books, and the second
00:27:19copies of Zsolnay's recipe books. Most of the originals
00:27:23went to the museum, but the second copies are there. If a
00:27:26foreign buyer buys it, they can close the
00:27:29factory and open a Zsolnay factory anywhere
00:27:32in the world with Zsolnay products, and there is no
00:27:36protection for this, it falls under the 30-year rule.
00:27:42The privatization tug-of-war ended just as our
00:27:45film was being made. The majority
00:27:48of the company's shares were bought by a domestic bank
00:27:51and Hungarian private individuals. It seems the goat ate
00:27:55the cabbage and the cabbage remained. The only question
00:27:58is how much water will flow down the fountain before Zsolnay sees better days again.