Become a Horezu Potter!

In the afternoon, after we return at the workshop, we prepare the clay for the next day to start shaping the pots. This is not an easy process because it involves lots of effort, since you need to continuously step on the clay mixture to homogenise it.

Dinner and accommodation in a rural guesthouse.

In Sibiu we visit the old city center and the open-air ethnographic ASTRA Museum - including lots of traditional rural techniques and houses, together with pottery workshops, from other pottery centres from Romania like Marginea, Sacel, Corund. All the houses are authentically decorated with specific workmanships from each area. Lunch in a traditional restaurant inside ASTRA Museum.
In the afternoon drive back to Horezu with a stop at Cozia Monastery.

Built by Serbian architects, it is modeled on the monasteries of the Morava Valley. The Serbian style was introduced in Wallachia by a monk called Nicodemus. The frescoes in the nave and altar were added in the early 18th century. The Cozia Monastery houses a museum of religious art, and it also offers an amazing panoramic view over the mountains and the Olt valley. Return for dinner and overnight in a rural guesthouse in Horezu.

Lunch at the rural guesthouse.
In the afternoon, we actually start painting on the pots different drawings and floral motifs using colours made out of mineral pigments. Different colours are spread on the pot using a cow horn that has attached to the end a quill for an easy spread of the colour on the surface.

We will try to create on the pots the Horezu Pottery symbolic drawings, "the Horezu Rooster" and the "Fish", motifs that also appear in other artifacts traditionally made in the region (rugs, decorated Easter eggs).

Dinner and overnight in a rural guesthouse in Horezu.

The church paintings were made under Constantin Brâncoveanu rule and feature depictions from the New and Old Testament, unique iconographic representations of the monasteries from the Athos Mountain and portraits of saints.
Continue to Women's Cave (Pestera Muierii) - used as refuge by women and children in old times, while their men fought in frequent wars.
Lunch in a restaurant or picnic lunch.

In the afternoon, drive to Targu Jiu. Constantin Brancusi was born in the close village Hobita, and had a workshop in Targu Jiu. Visit of the central park, where some of his impressive sculptures are exposed: the Table of Silence (Masa Tacerii), the Gate of the Kiss (Poarta Sarutului). The Endless Column (Coloana Infinitului) will end our visits.
Drive back for dinner and overnight in a rural guesthouse in Horezu.

After the fire is done, we leave the pots to cool down in the oven till next morning. Lunch at the rural guesthouse.
In the afternoon, drive and visit Curtea de Arges Monastery, where Romanian kings are buried. Built by Neagoe Basarab, the Monastery is related to the legend of Manole, the self sacrifice. According to the legend, the wife of the master stonemason Manole was embedded alive in the stone walls of the church, sacrifice which was meant to ensure the success of the work. Manole and his team were left on the roof without ladder by the prince, so that they could never build a church as beautiful as this one again.

In an attempt to fly down, Manole made himself a pair of wings out of shingles, but they were of no avail, and he would crash to the ground like Icarus and die. Upon his crash, on that very spot, a spring would gush forth. Visit the ruins of the Princely Court, an ensemble originally comprising a church and palace, build by Basarab I in the 14th century.
Return for dinner and overnight in a rural guesthouse in Horezu.

Glazes are usually made of grass powder - the mixture of powders is mixed with water and applied to the ceramic surface by spraying, brushing, or dipping. The glaze is then dried and fixed onto the ceramic surface by firing.
During firing, the glaze softens and flows over the surface; it reacts with the ceramic, forming the transparent glaze. Lunch in the rural guesthouse.

In the afternoon, discover Horezu village life. We visit the Natural Reserve of "Trovants" (bigger or smaller formations of petrified silicons from the Sarmatic Sea) and the Horezu Monastery. The name of the village comes from the name of the bird (owl - "huhurez") that can be heard during the night in the surrounding forests.

Return for dinner and overnight in a rural guesthouse in Horezu.

Lunch in a restaurant in Bucharest. In the afternoon, city tour of the town surnamed "the Little Paris": University Square, Stavropoleos Church, Lipscani Street (the former merchants' street), the Palace of the Parliament (Ceausescu's new palace, the second building in the world after the Pentagon) - in case it will be opened for visits at that time, the Old Princely Court. Farewell dinner in a restaurant with folk music performance.

Overnight in a 3* hotel in Bucharest.