Exhibition research display object 13: Miner's beer mugs

This beer mug is from the Restaurant Naspolya, the only restaurant in Bátaapáti, and speaks to the region’s mining history, infrastructural legacies and continuities. The establishment was built and owned by the village's long-serving mayor, Krachun Szilárd, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations with PURAM (Public Limited Company for Radioactive Waste Management) from the 1990s until the repository’s completion in 2011. Apart from a brief hiatus, Krachun remained in office until his passing in 2023, shortly after our meeting with him during our first research trip to the village.

The beer mug is "merch" from the company responsible for constructing the Bátaapáti repository, Mecsekérc Zrt (Mecsek Ore Ltd), which is also involved in other projects of national significance like the recultivation of landscapes formerly destroyed by uranium mining and the geological investigations of the Boda claystone formation as a potential site for Hungary's high-level radioactive waste repository. This mug commemorates coal mining in the Mecsek Mountains near Pécs with the traditional miner's greeting "Glück Auf!" in German, testifying to another generation and branch of extractive industries as well as the German minority population living and working in the region, which have both shaped local identity. In the restaurant, it was displayed on a shelf with other "merch" mugs, promoting various extractive industries, such as coal, copper and uranium mining. Together, these artifacts capture the interconnected histories of extraction and energy production that continue to shape the present in Bátaapáti and the broader region.