The Hefaiston is an annual gathering and international competition of blacksmith

Blacksmith

A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

s that is held at the Helfštýn

Helfštýn

Helfštýn, is a castle 15 km east of Přerov, in the Olomouc region in Central Moravia, Czech Republic. The history of Helfštýn is closely related to the development of the nearby town of Lipník nad Bečvou, which has a number of valuable architectural monuments, among them the classical château and...

 castle, Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

. It is named after the Greek god Hephaestus

Hephaestus

Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else, according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes...

. The event is organized by the Comenius Museum in Přerov

Prerov

Přerov is a town in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic where the Bečva river flows through. Přerov is a statute town . It has population of about 47,373 to January 2, 2008. Přerov is about 22 km south west of Olomouc. In the past it was a major crossroad in the heart of Moravia in the...

 in collaboration with the administration of the castle since 1982. The 29th gathering (held in 2010) was attended by more than four hundred blacksmiths. The Hefaiston is considered one of the most important annual meetings of artist blacksmiths in the world.

History

The tradition of annual blacksmith gatherings at Helfštýn started in 1982. Initially, the event involved only blacksmiths from the former Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. Thanks to the efforts of the master blacksmith Alfred Habermann, who spread the information about the event not only in the Czechoslovakia but also abroad, the gatherings gradually turned into a meeting place for blacksmiths from all over the world. The Hefaiston is visited by artist blacksmiths from the Central and Western Europe, but also from Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....

 etc.

Structure and organization

The main principle of the Hefaiston remains unchanged for years. It starts one week before the main competition with the workshop called The Blacksmith Forum. During the forum, one or groups of blacksmiths working in the castle realize their ideas and designs. Their iron works are subsequently displayed at the castle, and during the weekend are confronted with the works of their blacksmith competitors.

Each gathering is connected with the competition. The expert jury evaluates the works of blacksmiths in two categories, works imported to Helfštýn and works created directly at the castle. The jury evaluates the exhibits in the following categories:

• Classical artistic blacksmithing
• Sculptural works and chamber sculpture
• Jewelry
• Weapons
• Damascene metal work
  Damascus steel
  Damascus steel was a term used by several Western cultures from the Medieval period onward to describe a type of steel used in swordmaking from about 300 BCE to 1700 CE. These swords are characterized by distinctive patterns of banding and mottling reminiscent of flowing water...
  
  
• Iron founding work

Since 2008, the best blacksmiths receive the Alfred Habermann Award. A part of the exhibited works remains in the possession of the castle, and Helfštýn represent one of the world's greatest collections of artistic metalworks.

External links

• Helfštýn - Official website