Eva Lovásová
The first pipes arrived on our territory in the 17th century, brought by the soldiers of foreign armies. At the break of 18th and 19th centuries they started to be fully developed in the workshops of clay pipe producers. The best-known pipe makers in Slovakia were producers of clay pipes in Banská Štiavnica, and their pipes were known throughout Europe as well as overseas. The most famous was the pipe workshop of Karol Zachar. The closure of this last pipe workshop in Slovakia in 1959 saw the end of one of the most successful Slovak crafts. The Slovak Mining Museum in Banská Štiavnica holds a preserved inventory of Zachar’s pipe workshop, and it is still possible to demonstrate the complete technology for making pipes.