CORUND

Preserving its traditions, Corund (Korond), located 25km north of Odorheiu Secuiesc, is a typical example of the modernised Szekely-villages: its trade, touristic and cultural role based on the pottery is getting more and more significance. The village's population is less than 2000 inhabitants.
Pottery is a characteristic manufacturing branch of Harghita county.

The industry developed mainly in the western part of the county due to the abundance and features of the raw material, the clay.

Corund village, famous for its green and brown pottery, as well as the cobalt blue introduced by the Germans in the eighteenth century, became the center of the Transylvanian pottery.

The basis of the pottery is the slate on the left side of the Sacadat Stream on the west border of the commune. There used to be an aragonite-mine (today natural protection area) and a famous mineral water spa (today it is the scene of the Arcso pottery-trade).

Most of the potters are working as private entrepreneurs. They inherited the skills, the workshops and the clay mine from their parents and grandparents, but the markets as well. The traditions are kept not only in the design of the products, but in the manufacturing process as well.

In the workshops and shops are working only family members.

Traditional pottery products from Corund can be found all over Romania. Corund seems to produce nearly all of the folk souvenirs in Romania. The offer includes pots, plates, jugs, vases, industrial ceramy, small sculpture etc.
Ceramics, some of them masterpieces of folk handicraft, are the main cottage industry.

The famous annual Arcso pottery-trade has been held on the area between the bridge of the Corund Stream and the inn since 1978.
The traditional country fair takes place on the first weekend of August and it presents the products of local handicrafts and ceramists of Corund.

Besides pottery, the village offers a vast variety of objects woven from stray, woolen products, wooden tools, objects for daily use or ornamental ones to the visitor.

Next to the clay major significance has in village's life the curative mineral water springs containing iron, indicated for people suffering from stomach-problems.