The whole town of Sládkovičovo was influenced by the building activity of the Kuffner family, founders of the sugar factory, through the construction of many not only industrial buildings. The area of the sugar factory cleverly encloses the axis of the park of the Kuffner manor. The convenient location on the fertile plain, together with the proximity of the railway line, were the main reasons for establishing the sugar factory on this very spot. Two years after the start of the first campaign, the owners began extensive rebuilding, and then, after a devastating fire in 1871, a complex restoration of the entire site began again, completed in 1874. The premises included a boiler house, warehouses, workshops, horse stables, a boiling house, a sugar refinery and warehouse, a diffusion juice treatment plant, furnaces, a molasses tank and two lime kilns. The architecture of the sugar factory, as we know it from historical depictions, bore the features of romantic morphology. The facades of the buildings were accentuated by profiled elements made of masonry - pilasters, roof cornices, dentilled gables, windows with arched lintel and protruding sills with classical industrial glazing. The architecture of the sugar factory, as we know it from historical depictions, bore the features of romantic morphology. The facades of the buildings were accentuated by profiled elements made of masonry - pilasters, roof cornices, dentilled gables, windows with arched lintel with arched lintel and protruding sills with classical industrial glazing. The windows were grouped and framed in a way that emphasised the composition of the whole facade.
The next phase of construction from 1904-1935, which added a brewhouse, "cubing house," repair shops, a cannery, and a wood warehouse with a sawmill, no longer has such distinctive architecture, and the elements of masonry are simplified.
The complex modernisation of the sugar factory in 1935-1938 also had a significant impact on its architecture. The spatial organisation of the industrial complex remained almost unchanged, but most of the buildings were stripped almost to bricks, the structures were stiffened with reinforced concrete frames and supplemented with new fillings. The rich morphology, which was indicative of the period of the whole sugar factory, was replaced by flat pilasters and cornices. The 1935 remodelling brought a new energy centre, whose facade composition visually presented the structural essence of the building. The fermentation house, the two-storey turbine hall and other extensions were built in a similar spirit. Many of the buildings had to be demolished.
After the nationalisation of the company, the name of the factory changed frequently, as did the organisational structure on the site. Modernisation was carried out according to changing technological standards. During the second half of the 20th century, a number of buildings were constructed that were exclusively standard and purpose-built. The appearance of the whole complex was more significantly affected by modifying the roofing of the main production building with trapezoidal sheeting. Today (2021) the sugar factory is unused and deteriorating.
Bibliography:
HALLON, Ľudovít - SUDOVÁ, Eva (ed.): Barón Karl Kuffner de Dioszegh a diószegský cukrovar. Preklad Hildegarda POKREIS. Sládkovičovo, Mesto Sládkovičovo 2009.
SUDOVÁ, Eva: Kuffnerovský hospodársky komplex. Sládkovičovo, Mesto Sládkovičovo 2012.
