Wood in the lives of the Gorol people

Wood is a material that was at the heart of Gorol life in the times of our ancestors. Without wood, they would not have had food, shelter, or flutes to play when grazing their sheep on the mountain meadows. Even today, wood is still much appreciated for its beauty and fragrance.

And in the hands of a skilled folk craftsman, it truly comes alive. Some traditionally crafted items are so beautifully made that they are genuine works of art. But the folk decorations also performed a practical function, as they often identified the owner of the item.
The Gorol Day devoted to wood offers visitors a superb opportunity to admire the skills of woodcarvers – both the finished products of local craftsmen and demonstrations of their amazing dexterity. Carved figures are also on sale, and there are demonstrations of basket weaving and the manufacture of birch wands. Visitors can also see how the region’s distinctive and traditional wooden roof tiles are made. The tiles – known locally as ‘šindele’ – were originally made by chopping: a chopped tile lasts up to three times longer than a tile carved from planks, as the wood fibres are broken when planks are cut.

Music-lovers will be fascinated by the haunting tones of the trombita, known in Slovakia as the fujara – a unique overtone flute. You can watch skilled craftsmen making a 4 metre-long trombita, a shepherd’s horn or an ordinary whistle, and you can even try out your own musical skills playing one of these unique instruments. The exhibition at the Fojství in Mosty u Jablunkova features a trombita made by Mr Josef Chmiel of Karviná-Darkov, who is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the maker of the longest overtone flute ever crafted by one person. The instrument is 8.35 metres long and weighs 7.75 kg. A trombita consists of two U-section half-tubes glued together and fastened with wooden or metal brackets, wrapped in cherry or birch bark. The instrument has no holes; the player controls the pitch through the tension of his lips.