Glass City: History of Krosno Glass

In order to cover the glasswork’s demand for skilled workers the Secondary Glass Technical School was established in 1959. It’s well skilled graduates enabled the company’s designers to introduce their beautiful designs into production. The skill of the local blowers and technologists was also the foundation of the of the highly valued brand of Krosno glass. The crystal clear material was turned into beautiful glass objects, also into household items, which set the directions for the development of the Polish industrial design.
The glass products of Krosno won many awards at national and international fairs, no wonder, thus, that after the fall of communism, Krosno Glassworks, as one of the first five companies, was introduced into the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 1991. Since 2001 the company has been operating in the group of several production plants under the common name of Krosno Group. Nowadays, even though the situation on the international markets and particularly in the branch of glass production is very complicated, Krosno Glassworks still develop and remain a key supplier of glass items. Its products are highly valued for their quality and design, be it manual or machine make. It is worth mentioning that one of the group’s company, Krosglass SA, successfully continues the tradition of producing fibre glass and is currently the only manufacturer of such products in Poland.

The transition to the free market economy in the early 90’s set the environment  for establishing many smaller, privately owned glassworks in the region, many of which still operate. The craft and profession of glass manufacturing, passed from fathers on sons, created many 'glass families’ that developed the glass heritage for generations. The products of such companies as, for instance, JDM Kazana, Deco Glass, Galicjan, Huta Jozefina, Makora, Huta Sabina or Huta Tarnowiec very soon caught the eye of customers in every part of the world, strengthening the image of Krosno as the 'heart of the Polish industry’.

There have appeared many more glassworks or glass processing workshops for the past several decades. Some of them ceased production, some new appeared in their place. Nowadays, there are still many which work as artistic studios. They offer different types of products from household glass to unique glass sculptures, gifts, trophies, jewellery, decorative architectural glass or custom made glass objects. Krosno glass remains well known in European Union, United States, Australia, Japan or Arab states.

Krosno lived and still exist in the 'glass environment’- most of the local families are this way or another bound to glass. Glass items bearing KROSNO stickers, displayed in the most prestigious shops, have made the name of the town famous worldwide.