The Historic Blue-Dye Factory Museum in Pápa, Hungary
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Our regular readers will know that we are always interested in visiting “Industrial Heritage” sites. Seeing old factories and workplaces gives us a better understanding of the living and working conditions of the time, often only from two or three generations ago (like for our grandparents). They also teach us about the admirable skills, often passed on from one generation to the next, and perfected along this timeline. The knowledge of these skills is now slowly getting lost.
So when I read about a century-old blue-dye factory in Papa, now preserved as a museum, our next stop in Hungary was decided.
The Kékfestő Múzeum is located in the original buildings of the former blue-dye factory in Pápa, with all its equipment left in place. It opened in 1962, and was later renovated to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Kluge factory. (Kékfestő [plural Kékfestés] is Hungarian and means Blue-Dyed Cloth. To this day the term is used for all such fabric that originates from Hungary.)
What you will find in this article:
We arrived at the Blue-Dye Museum with little expectation or previous knowledge. Most of what I have written here, I learned during my visit to this museum. There was very little internet research needed afterwards.
This book is for travellers who are more interested in the sights than recommendations for restaurants or hotels.
The History of the Blue-Dye Factory in Pápa
This factory was founded by German migrants and was operated by the same family until its nationalisation. Johann Friedrich Kluge was a textile worker from Saxony, who migrated to Hungary because it was difficult to find employment in Central Europe at that time. He brought the knowledge and skill of a new textile printing technique, reverse-style cold vat indigo printing, with him.
His son Carl learned the same trade and established his first workshop in Sárvár in 1783. In 1786, he moved to Papa with his family to open a larger blue-dye factory. In the following decades, the business flourished, in part because the Kluge family regularly upgraded their equipment with the latest machinery from Germany.
By 1880, the economic climate was favourable and business was good, which encouraged the family to expand and modernise the factory to the size it is today. One photo in the exhibition shows a staff of 22 workers, 3 trained specialists, 24 sales staff and the entire Kluge family clan. The factory kept producing at full capacity until WWI.
In 1956, the factory was nationalised under the Communist regime and subsequently closed down. (Don’t ask me why it was closed almost immediately! I’m as curious as you, but I cannot find any clear explanation about this part of history.) Until this time, the Kluge family had managed this company through seven generations. Prudently, all equipment was left in place with the idea of creating the museum you can visit today.
Please click thumbnails below for a larger photo with description.
The Importance of Indigo Dyed Fabrics in Europe
Blue dyed fabrics were popular in Europe for centuries. Originally, a plant called woad (Latin Isatis Tinctoria) was used. When indigo found its way to Europe from India in the 17th century, it quickly replaced woad as a fabric dye because of its superior qualities. Indigo dyed clothes are more colourfast and don’t fade as quickly in sunlight.
The resist block printing technique opened the way for intricate white patterns on the blue dyed fabric, and quickly became very desirable. In 2018, the technique and tradition of blue-dyed fabric in Europe was recognised by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Austria, Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. The UNESCO listing specifically mentions the complex skills and long running family heritage of this old craft:
Traditional knowledge is still based on (mainly family-owned) journals dating back to the nineteenth century and passed on through observation and hands-on practice. Stakeholders feel a strong emotional bond with their products, and the element encapsulates a sense of pride in long-lasting family traditions. [quote from the UNESCO listing]
Somehow these fabrics have managed to remain popular to this day – from traditionally inspired dresses, to napery, and their use in quilting. Especially in the USA, you find many quilts stitched exclusively with patches of hand-printed blue and white fabrics produced the old-fashioned way. Just browse through Pinterest to see how popular Kékfestő remains.
A Visit to the Blue-Dye Museum in Pápa
When you approach the Blue-Dye Museum, its facade looks just like any other 19th century residential house in the street, only a little less renovated. The front building used to house the administration and salesrooms. This is where we were greeted and paid our small entry fee.
If available, a person will then give a short introduction to the museum. In our case, the older woman only spoke some Hungarian-accented German, which made it hard for Yasha to follow all explanations. Then we were free to wander around and take our time. Most pieces of equipment carry laminated paper signs in 3 languages (Hungarian, German and English); although, sometimes we had to search a little until we found the matching sign.
I’ll skip the other front rooms for now, as we exited the same way. Let’s move on to where we learned about the production of blue-dyed fabrics. The manufacturing is physically separated from the front building, so we crossed the small courtyard.
The first thing I noticed on the tall factory building were lines of protruding rods just below the gutters. Runs of fabric would have hung there to dry in the open air and sun. The entire blue-dye process requires the repeated airing and drying of the material in its several stages.
The Black Kitchen and the Dyeing of Kékfestő
The first room to our right was another drying space, which still has heating pipes running through its base. The second room on the right is the washing room, called the “Black Kitchen”. As an initial step the freshly received raw cloth had to be washed to clean it from all residue and starch left from spinning and weaving; otherwise, it wouldn’t take the dye evenly. Indigo is a dye that works best with natural fibres like cotton, linen and wool.
On the left, is a large room for the dyeing vats. The cloth was fixed to large metal rings, running in a spiral from the inside out; that way long lengths could be immersed in one small round bath (their inner diameter isn’t much over one metre). When the material came here to be dyed, it would have already been stamped with patterns. Follow me upstairs for more about this topic.
The Resist Block Printing
One large room upstairs is taken up by a Perrotine Textile Printing machine [this page on Wikipedia explains more]. This was the latest technology introduced at Kluge. Have a careful look into the wooden enclosure behind the machine; you can get an idea how large the bales of cloth would have been for mechanical printing.
Earlier, most patterns would have been applied by hand using wooden printing blocks. These leave a pattern of paste on the cloth, where it won’t take up indigo in the dye baths – thus leaving white patterns in the blue. After dyeing, the applied insulating paste was washed out in an acid bath, which was the most hazardous part of the process. This entire technique is called resist block printing, a skill the Kluge family had brought with them from Germany.
The above-mentioned machine was able to speed up the printing by quickly covering both sides of the material with small stamps.
The Spacious Airing Attic
One more stairway up, you will enter the large airing attic of the Blue-Dye Factory. The entire roof section is set aside for this. In the floor, you can see a trapdoor for the mechanical lift that was used to heave the heavy wet material up to this level.
Look up and see the hundreds of solid round timbers running between the beams. It’s an amazing place, somehow reminiscent of a rigging system above a theatre stage. But here the ‘curtains’ were lengths of cloth airing and drying in preparation for the next steps in becoming the famous Kékfestő fabric.
This covers all the work processes one can see in this middle building. The other rooms are taken up by bits and pieces in showcases, documenting the history of the Kluge Blue-Dye Factory in Pápa. We guess that previously, these rooms may have been used for the hand printing of the cloth. So follow us to the second production building on the narrow plot of land.
You have to cross a small bridge over a former creek to reach the last building. In the old days, this creek supplied the water needed for the blue-dye process. (I don’t want to think what their effluent might have looked like; speaking of blue, blue water.)
The Steam Engine House and Finishing Building
The building at the back of the block was where most of the finishing of the dyed fabric happened. It’s cramped with various large-scale machines. Two, with many shiny copper rolls, were used to calender the long runs of blue fabric [this Wikipedia article explains the process of calendering]. In the middle of the far left room stands an oversized spin-dryer.
At the front of the room on the right is the factory’s old boiler, which was powering the steam engine that was running the entire complex. In those days, machines were belt-driven, and the wheels to move the belts were mounted on long axle shafts, which were all turned by the power of the steam engine. There must have been a hell of a noise, on top of all the heat, steam and moisture from washing, dyeing and hot calendering of the fabric.
Please click thumbnails below for a larger photo with description.
Conclusion: should you visit the Blue-Dye Museum?
Absolutely! If you are interested in “Industrial Heritage” or the origins of old handicrafts, you’ll love this place. All exhibits are low-key, no flashy video screens or other visual enhancements – it feels just like stepping into a mothballed relic of the past.
The only real visual treasures are in the front rooms right behind the reception area. Here you will see some mannequins in preserved historic blue-dye clothes, and some historic photographs and documents.
A good number of small tables, almost decorated like market stalls, showcase the finished goods of Hungarian Blue-Dye Manufacturers that are still producing to this day. Some of the displayed items would make unique souvenirs, with which you can help to keep a slowly disappearing craft alive… These are 100% authentic indigo fabrics, not cheap imported copies.
A Visit at the National Slate Museum in Llanberis, Wales
The Wool Mill of Saltaire – World Heritage Thanks to Three Visionary Men
The Blue-Dye Museum [The Museum’s Website in Hungarian, German, English] isn’t the only reason to visit Pápa [Wikipedia on Papa]. The small town has a pleasant historic Baroque-style centre, which is bordered on one side by the impressive Esterhazy Castle. This influential family has left their marks all over Hungary, Austria and Germany; we had come to Pápa from Győr, a lovely city with a smaller Esterhazy Palace in its centre. Read our post “Hungary Road Trip to see these Remarkable Places” for more treasures we discovered in Hungary.
This book is for travellers who are more interested in the sights than recommendations for restaurants or hotels.
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I didn’t know anything about these blue dye textiles, but as a textile fanatic, it sounds like a place I need to go!
I only knew them from old photographs, as they were also fairly popular in southern Germany. I learned about the labour-intensive production process at this museum.