IZ OPKOPA VARAŽDINSKOG STAROGA GRADA PEĆNJACI KASNOG SREDNJEG VIJEKA
FROM THE VARAŽDIN OLD TOWN DITCH. LATE MEDIEVAL STOVE TILES

Summary/Abstract: Dedicated to the memory of the academician Andre Mohorovičić, a great man who often returned to our small town. In the collection of the numerous archaeological finds from the excavation of the Varaždin fortress – the Old Town, a large number of stove tiles, components of large and luxurious brick stove are highlighted. For this occasion, we have singled out the stove tiles which can be attributed to the Late Medieval period by its ornamental elements, method and type of manufacturing, and which also indicate the characteristic of late gothic style. The analysed stove tiles have been preserved in fragments, and some of them were reconstructed thanking to the analogous finds from other identical period sites.The Varaždin samples were found in 1971, in the probe which was excavated within the architectural research of the southern wall of the fort and during the archaeological excavation and research in the western and northern part of the wet ditch conducted in 2006 within the neighbourly Project Bastion. The processing and analysing of older and newer finds, and their comparison with the stove tiles known from other sites led us to new insights about ornaments, number of stove tiles with identical ornaments and motifs (series), its dating and relation of glazed and unglazed stove tiles according to the present stage of the Old Town research and available archaeological materials. Further archaeological excavation of the Varaždin fortress external area would certainly led to significant new stove tiles findings. These Old Town finds can be characterized as a high quality manufactured finds, and we can classified them among the best Late Medieval products of its kind, side by side with the best European samples. They have specific ornaments, such as de termined biblical scenes, geometric shapes and dragon motifs. A certain number of fragments could not be attributed. These small pieces of stove tiles have shapes of human figures (in details), animals (perhaps hunting scenes) and fantastic animals (dragon). The majority of fragments including those on the edges could with large probability indicate the following scenes: Samson fighting the lion, St. Nicholas of Bari, St. George slaying the dragon, the Annunciation, St. Margaret, the shape of a dragon, knight image etc. On the ten stove tiles fragments the ornaments are not recognizable. Nearly 75% of the stove tiles are unglazed, but they have engobed surface, while only fewer are green glazed, and in those samples they first put the light engobed layer before they glazed it. According to the presented characteristics and respectable manufacturing quality of finds, and other analogous Late Medieval stove tiles fragments from the known sites, we can easily assume that those finds belong to the luxurious Late Gothic stove from the Varaždin fortress.

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