In the south of Poland, a small Silesian town is home to a unique form of manufacturing that most rarely think about: religious sculptures. For more than 100 years, the Workshop of Sacral Art, founded by Kazimierz Schaefer in 1898, has been producing concrete and plaster statues of saints using traditional methods.
Now 117 years later, the factory is currently run by Schaefer's granddaughter Barbara. More than 250 models of religious figures of differing sizes, including statues of Christ, popes and saints, as well as re-creations of the Christmas nativity scene, are being sold both locally and globally.
At its peak, the factory employed dozens of workers, but now only consists of five individuals. Despite the recent recession and competition caused by an influx of cheap plastic figures made in China, this manufacturing has endured, and the quality and aesthetic value of its creations remain second to none.