Rigo Windows
Dierdre Roussin
The quality harboured by the product is fully visible on the outside: this is the fundamental concept, the foundations on which RIGO builds, a new interpretation for the construction of windows and doors that the customer can recognize at a glance. Even without opening the windows, no need to be a great connoisseur.
Because RIGO windows and doors speak to the heart.
RIGO production has developed on this idea and, since 1990, has focused on product quality, applying the top finishes. RIGO has always used cutting-edge technologies, the best the market has to offer. And, today, this concept has been integrated with a patented hinge created to give the window something new: a unique, exclusive profile that reinforces product quality, even technically.
What is simpler and more elegant than a curve?
Accommodation and protection, a sinuous interplay of indentures and hollows. This was the guiding light for the four Rigo brothers, carpenters for two generations. It helped them skilfully trace the evolution of both company and product: a marked return to the Venetian artisan traditions but revived with unceasing technological research and innovation.
The ultimate expression of this superb blend is the innovative, patented "curved" joint: a process that has perfected workmanship dating from times of the ancient Venetian Republic, giving the windows that new profile, the unique, exclusive look typical of Rigo windows and doors. This production concept reveals the company's desire to redesign our walk down memory lane, decking it out with the colours of the present and future.
An embracing form that encircles reality, lovingly hugging like a sinuous mountain stream that skirts around trees and embraces the obstacles in its path. This is why the curve has become the distinctive feature of Rigo windows and doors. Varying the radii, following a counter-curve, and behold: a space, a design is born. Voila: a creation. A simple sign, but masterfully reworked by those who really know how to create a personal style while tradition intuitive, artistic values alive.
Thanks to its distinctive, curvy forms, the exclusive, patented design of the Rigo creations are easy to recognize.
Curving, winding like one's thoughts, like real intuitions that never follow a direct path.
We meld harmony and balance with economics and nature. This is why we have chosen to manufacture in wood only: an ancient material that, properly treated, has a bright future. Perfected, guaranteed systems of water-based paints and stains can maintain the windows and doors in time by simply wiping the window with a cloth. Craftsmanship and generous use of clear-cut construction arts: the ancient material gives the product stability, sturdiness and focus; but it stands in open dialogue with experimental construction criteria and volumes that offer an organic whole, drafting variations on a theme to meet the demands of every home. Each new Rigo window and door pays homage to traditions and offers its respects to the future: this is why we use laminboard, recommend only farmed wood, focus on jointed wood that eliminates wastes and reduces environmental impact to the barest minimum.
A heart that is both traditional and technological, that beats to the rhythm of relations with our customers, crowning a path of creativity, commitment and passion. We want to deserve your trust. This is why we listen attentively, both before and after production, giving you emotions that are not only aesthetic. Indeed, we take pride in our keen attention to execution, our highly customized creations that meet your demands, reflect your own style. Moreover, we consider meeting the set delivery times essential; our desire to do our best stands behind each and every Rigo window and door. Always.
If adequately treated, wood can satisfy even the most demanding customer, one who is not inclined to perform maintenance.
This is why painting and/or staining is an essential part of window construction: today RIGO guarantees this extremely delicate phase of production. We build windows and doors that are easy to maintain, that will remain in perfect condition for years. No need to periodically remove and sand them. To do so, we have turned to one of the major producers of wood stains, working up treatment cycles that can guarantee that these windows and doors will last up to 10 years.
Ondrej Rigo has a daughter. According to an article in the Slovak newspaper SME, Rigo was of Roma ethnicity. Even as an adult, Rigo was a man of short stature. When he was 14, he, along with his siblings, was taken into a youth corrective institution and later into an orphanage. They stayed there for a year, having been taken from their mother after their father's arrest. Rigo's mother died in 2000 after being hit by a car. Learning of her death is the only time Rigo recalls ever crying in his life. His father died during a burglary. Rigo claimed he liked both parents.
He was married two times. His first marriage was during his military service (compulsory in Czechoslovakia at that time), but "when we returned to Bratislava she started to become jealous. You know, an Easterner [meaning from Eastern Slovakia, a culturally and linguistically distinct region of the country], so she returned to Poprad. I went with her to say goodbye at the station," recalls Rigo. Little was known about his second marriage. The woman he was with in the movie theatre on the night of his last murder is being referred to as his "partner".
In Bratislava, Rigo worked in Hotel Carlton, where he was arrested. Before that, he worked as a fireman in the boiler room for the Pravda newspaper, a hospital on Bezručova Street as well as a hospital on Šulekova Street, having also completed his gasman certification (plynrske skšky in Slovak).
Before committing his first murder, Rigo had already been convicted of crimes 11 times. He was a criminal from an early age, focusing mainly on home burglaries. The last time period he was in police custody in Czechoslovakia was from 28 September 1989, to 9 December 1989, because of unauthorised leaving of the Republic, which was illegal under communist rule.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of communism in Czechoslovakia, people were allowed once again to travel freely in Europe; Rigo then continued with his crimes abroad. On 9 December 1989, the same day he was released from prison (and three weeks after the start of the Velvet Revolution), he traveled to Vienna without any valid passport. There, he acquired a fake Yugoslavian passport in the name of "Nedo Ikic". Later, he traveled to West Germany to meet his brother. In Bavaria, he asked for asylum, using his fake passport. He was, however, sentenced by the German authorities to two months in prison for forging documents. He spent his sentence in a prison in Bad Reichenhall. After his release from prison, Rigo escaped from a refugee camp and traveled to Munich, where he continued his burglaries and started his killing spree.
After arriving at Munich, Rigo murdered twice in three months. His first victim, Helena S. (40), probably surprised Rigo while he was burglarizing her apartment. "He killed her and got aroused sexually," recalled Anton Heretik, author of Rigo's psychological evaluation during investigation. On the night from 7 June to 8 June 1990, he sneaked through a partially open window into the ground floor bedroom of Helena S. at an unspecified location in Munich. Rigo smashed her head with a 2.5 kilogram metal pipe, wrapped the upper part of her body in a blanket, and raped her corpse. Before leaving, he may have stolen some easily portable valuables. He disposed of the murder weapon directly beneath the bedroom window.
On the night between 31 July and 1 August 1990, Rigo snuck through the partially open balcony door and into the Munich apartment of Ilka Z. (27), murdering her, again using a metal pipe. Rigo also stabbed her in the neck with a screwdriver, most likely during the act of copulation. He performed both vaginal and anal intercourse with her body. Afterwards, he covered up the body and searched the house for valuables, finding a golden necklace and an unknown amount of German marks, which he stole. The murder weapon and a man's sock was later found by the German police at the crime scene.
In October, Rigo left Munich for Amsterdam to visit his sister, Helena. Maria van der W. (58) was a woman living alone in Amsterdam. During the night of 27 September 1990, Rigo snuck into her ground-floor apartment through a partially open balcony window and killed her with a stone weighing over 5.5 kilograms (probably a pavement cobblestone). He stripped the body naked and copulated with it. Again he robbed his victim, stealing a camera, a woman's wristwatch, two boxes containing coins, and some other valuables. In the kitchen, he found a bottle of slivovica and drank it. Later, in court, a witness would testify that Rigo had a liking for this particular drink.
Rigo left for Bratislava, Slovakia the day following the murder. His killings continued with the murder of Terzia R. (88) inside a retirement home in Bratislava, on 6 October 1990. He bludgeoned her with his fist while she was sleeping. The retirement home reported prayer books, a rosary and 4000 Kčs as missing. Underneath the balcony, the police found some Dutch coins and cigarette butts with Rigo's DNA on them.
Jana B. (31) became the first person to survive Rigo's attack on 9 January 1991, when she managed to fight him off after being attacked in her first-floor Bratislava apartment on Kutuzovova Street. Rigo gained access through a ventilation window above the door. After the unsuccessful attack, he quickly fled the apartment. Jana B. noticed that Rigo's light-blue pants were hand-sewn in the crotch area, which later helped in identifying him. The police indeed found such pants in his closet. That same night, before attacking Jana B., Rigo entered through a different window in the neighborhood, but it led only to a small, locked storage room.
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