Gorodnaya. Gonchar's Estate Museum.

Gorodnaya village of Stolinsky district is famous for its temples, of which there are two in the very center, but also for its traditional craft – pottery.

Pottery in Gorodnaya has been known since the 15th century, when the town flourished during the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and even had Magdeburg rights and its own coat of arms. Today Gorodnaya is the center of the village council.

In Gorodnaya, pottery has been preserved in an authentic state, and local craftsmen use the manufacture of tableware on foot-mounted pottery wheels. The local system of pottery mold names was also developed and preserved.

The characteristic tableware from Gorodnaya has perfect proportions and large spherical shapes painted with red clay. In Soviet times, pottery in Gorodnaya began to decline, as individual entrepreneurship was banned in the USSR, and it was only in the 1990s that the value of local potters was truly appreciated.

In 1992, Belarus issued a postage stamp depicting Gorodnyansky ceramics. In 1996, Matvey Pechenko, a potter from Gorodnaya, was elected Master of the year. And in 2004, the hereditary potter M. Pechenko received the State Prize.

In order to preserve and popularize local pottery traditions, a branch of the Stolinsky Regional Museum of Local Lore, called the Potter's Manor Museum, was opened in Gorodnaya in 2008. The estate consists of a courtyard on which there is a traditional furnace for heating products, a Craftsman's house, a cellar for storing harvested clay, a shed for inventory and a cart as a vehicle for exporting dishes for sale.

If desired, in addition to a guided tour of the museum, you can book a pottery workshop.