Pohorje Glassworks

In addition to sawmills, mills, and blacksmiths, the area along the streams was often filled with glassworks. Water powered not only the mills but also the stamping mills, which crushed and ground the components of the future glass mass. Water was also crucial for transporting wood via the water chutes to the glassworks. The establishment of glassworks was facilitated by the large quantities of quartz found in Pohorje.

On Ruše Pohorje, starting from the 17th century, there were 5 glassworks in operation: 3 at higher elevations and 2 at lower elevations.

"Gornja Glažuta" around 1910

The oldest lowland glass factory, which was managed by Bavarian colonists, did not have a special name and used drifted quartzite from Lobnica and Drava. This same building later housed a home for the disabled, a paper mill, and a match factory during the time of Maria Theresa.

The oldest high-altitude glass factory was called Stara glažuta and operated from 1692 to 1793 in the Lobniška valley above Šumik.

Around the Gornja Glažuta, which operated from 1780 to 1892 northwest of Areh (where the Planinski dom Glažuta stands today), a small settlement of brick and wooden buildings developed after 1827, when Vivod, whose family hailed from Vitanje, became the owner. This settlement comprised about 40 housing units for glassworkers, who also had small plots of land and some livestock, as well as facilities for production, administration, storage, and other economic activities. They also had their own wooden church, a tavern, a butcher shop, a store, a wine cellar with a cider press (as wine was too expensive for the workers), and a brick school where German was spoken. The Fala Count Giovanni Zabeo, of Friulian nationality, took over the glassworks in 1875 and abandoned it in 1893 due to industrial competition from Greece, Italy, and the Czech Republic, which was a common fate for other glassworks as well.

Around 50 workers were employed at one glass factory, and up to 200 at the largest, Vivatova. Wives and children also helped with lighter work.

The glass produced by the Pohorje factories was of high quality and was exported to the Viennese court, Germany, the Czech Republic, Egypt, and the Orient.

The most common products were glasses, vases, pitchers, chandeliers, pharmacy bottles, kerosene cylinders, beer goblets, and crystal. They produced all types of shaped and cut glass, while the technology for producing flat glass was not yet known. Predominant colors were white and green. The latter, which was most characteristic of Czech glassmaking, was achieved by adding iron oxide to the quartz sand.

Before the advent of railways, glassware was transported on wagons, which were harnessed by horses or oxen. Thus, fewer damaged products reached their destination. A special glassmaking route was also used from the mountain to the valley, which led via Lovrenec in Pohorje to Ruše. The last glass factory stopped working in 1908.