The Official Website City of Zlin
The Official Website City of Zlin
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The Blue Trail
1. The Town Hall building
Zlin Info and Tourist Centre
tel.: +420 577 630 222, -270
e-mail: is@muzlin.cz
link: www.zlin.eu

The oldest record ofthe old Zlín town hall dates back to 1569. This was a single story building on the west side of the city's main square. A new building was built in 1586. It was in the renaissance style and one of its wings served as a road-side inn. In the year 1920, a competition took place to build a brand new town hall. The winner was a Zlín native, architect František Gahura. Shortly after that, on August 27th 1921, the original renaissance-style town hall went up in flames. A year later a new cornerstone was laid and the building was finished in 1923 exactly as the architect saw it. The final look of the city hall building was finished between 1936 - 37, when it was rebuilt in the Bartošova street. Architect Gahura is also the creative force behind the blacksmith depicted on the northern facade. Across from the town hall you can see St. Florian and St. Donat churches dating back to the 18th century. The city square serves as a resting spot with a small park and a fountain.
2. The City theatre
tel.: +420 577 636 111
e-mail: divadlo@divadlo.zlin.cz
link: www.divadlo.zlin.cz

Professional the atrical scene was established in Zlín in 1946 and was located at the very beginning in the Small Scene in Štefánikova street. The City Theatre was called, in those days, the Workers'Theatre" and was among the first ones built shortly after WWII in the former Czechoslovakia. The structure was finished in 1967 according to a proposal by architects M. Řepa and F. Rozhon. The capacity of the theatre is some 800 spectators. The city theatre Zlín is presently considered as one of the best regional theatres in the Czech Republic. Besides its own repertoire, the theatre offers numerous performances by visiting theatrical groups, as well as operatic works. The theatre foyer is used by the State Gallery in Zlín. The city of Zlín traditionally organizes an International theatre festival Meeting-a Get-together always at the beginning of May. During the Open House, the visitors may visit the theatre behind the scenes.
3. Roman catholic church of St. Phillip and St. Jacob

This church most likely originates in the 15th ar 16th century and is one of the city's dominant features. In comparison with baroque styles, it has a wider apse; the windows are a gift from the churchgoers. The belfry houses steel bells from Vítkovice and the organ is from the Rieger brothers from Krnov. Between 1969 -1970 the interior of the church was fully reconstructed.
4. The Collective house

Between 1945 - 1950, a twelve story Collective House was built. It was designed by arch. Mr. Jiří Voženílek. It was a first attempt at an implementation of new living styles. The flats were equipped with artificially lit and ventilated built-in kitchen boxes. The ground floor had restaurants, clubs. and a gym at the recreational terrace. The kindergarten is located in the speciaI ground level wing of the building, accessible through the building's basement. The bottom part of the former university dining room has a new cultural institute opened in September 2003 on an area of 270 m', called the Alternative. The facility serves for presentations. public readings. evenings of poetry, fashion shows as well as recitals, puppet theatre performances, auctions, video-projections, public debates with the citizens, educational activities and many others.
5. Evangelical church
The architecture of the evangelical church is simple in its interpretation. The structure is dominated by a slender steeple rising sky-wards from two block-like structures. The architect ofthe project was arch. Mr. Vladimír Karfík.
6. Observatory
tel.: +420 777 977 720
e-mail: zas@zas.cz
link: www.zas.cz
The observatory is located in the vicinity of Zlín High School in the Lesní suburb. Besides star gazing you can stay for presentations see exhibitions of various planetary models. etc. Schools and groups may order program of their preferred topic.
7. The Lazy neighbourhood

The Parks Department, in cooperation with the Ministry of Forests of the Czech Republic has built a new network of tourist and bicycle paths above the Lazy neighbourhood. The dominant feature of the area is the gazebo "The Burned Oak." There are benches, rest spots and information signs along the footpaths, which will familiarize the hikers with local ornithological research. the proposal to manage the greenbelt according to the approved plan by the forestry authority. Structures. which are made from wood, have natural character and fit well into the surroundings.
8. The City Spa STEZA spol. s r. o.,
tel.: +420 577 599 911
link: www.laznezlin.cz

The Winter Spa facility was built in 1946 according to a design by arch. Mr. Vladimír Karfík with the cooperation of architects Mr. Ladislav Ambrožek and Josef Holeček, on the site of the Baťa Company's former brickworks, near the Youth Home and the district of grade and middle schools. Initially, the site had a pool, measuring 12 x 25 m. There are water aerobics courses available, diving, etc. In 1985 arch. Jiří Kotásek linked the structure to the 50 m long pooI. The space between both covered the swimming pools and has an outdoor pool with outdoor wading pool for toddlers, monkey bars and other attractions for children as well as green space for relaxation. The area has a children's heated pool, Finnish-style sauna, offers massages, indoorcycling studio, gym, refreshments and the opportunity to go diving with a children's programme called "Plaváček" (The Littfe Swimmer).
9. The Tomáš Baťa Memorial- the Arts House, residences

The newly booming city of Zlín has attracted a number of young men and women every year. This has created the need to build accommodations for them - residences and bachelor apartments. In 1927, an entire building project for mass accommodations took off. Those were two rows of free-standing buildings ranging between three to five floors, of equal size (80 x 20 m). They were finished in 1937 and the author is arch. Mr František Lydie Gahura. The ground floor has social and service facilities; other floors have accommodation divided into individual rooms. Today only half of the residences are used. The first bachelor apartment buildings were built in 1930 in other parts of the city in the area of Letná. in the Díly suburb and in Baťov - Otrokovice.
Building a cultural centre in 1933 closes the rising park area between the residences. The original plan called for a group of buildings of instructional character, along the axis of the Tomáš Baťa Memorial. The project was only partially finished together with two study institutions. The flexibility of reinforced concrete skeleton was taken advantage of by architect Mr. Gahura and presented itself to interesting interior design with impressive smooth glassed surfaces. The Tomáš Baťa Memorial is the most impressive architectural work of arch. Mr. F. L. Gahura; it is a modem paraphrase of the top-of-the-line gothic style: only a support system and colour windows - just reinforced concrete skeleton and glass. In 1954, the Memorial was rebuilt (academic architect Mr. J. Staša) to the Arts House, which had created fine arts gallery space and the Zlín philharmonic orchestra.
10. Artificial ski slope
tel.: +420 577 589 116, -118
link: http://www.svahzlin.cz/

The ski slope is situated in the area behind the Arts House (approx. 100 m). The length of the slope is 220 m and the height difference is 46 m. The ski slope has the POMA-P style t-bar with capacity of 510 skiers per hour. The slope is equipped with artificial snow-making equipment - 4 snow cannons and the most modem system increasing the production and quality of the snow - Snomax. The slope has also a tow line for the beginners, namely children. To towline is 70m long and is appropriately slow. The lighting of the slope makes skiing possible regardless of the time of the day. Daily and sometimes more frequent grooming of the snow surface is done by the "Kassbohrer" equipment, which guarantees a high quality of the ski slope. Other services available are ski service, ski equipment rental, buffet and free parking.
11. The Sports Complex
Sports Hall Novesta
tel.: +420 577 431 404
Winter Stadium of Luděk Čajka
tel.: +420 577 211 255

The author of the Novesta Sports Hall is academic architect Mr. Miloš Totušek. The ball games' sports hall is situated to the north from the Winter Stadium and together they create one very significant sports complex in the middle of town, which is architectonically connected by common entrance and a relaxation atrium. The ground floor has clubhouses, 8 locker rooms with all the necessities and 10 rooms for a sleep-over and a fiat forthe facilities' manager. as well as all things technical that make the place run. The spectators' level has an entry hall with its own cloak room and an Espresso buffet, storage facilities and toilettes. At the highest point, the hal I measures 24 x 48 meters and tribunes can safely hold of up to 3200 spectators. The authors of the Winter Stadium were Mr. J. Kriška and Mr. Š. Zelina; construction was the responsibitity of Mr. Ing. J. Zeman. As in many other cities, the Zlín's stadium too was built in phases. First came in the ice surface and later on the concrete tribunes with players' facilities on the inside, roof and finally the finishing work on the entry. The Zlín's stadium is an original because of its roof style - in fact iťs a huge construction of a skylight.
12. The Health Path

The health path was constructed on the land belonging to the city's green belt, under the appropriately named "Tlustá hora" (the Fat Mountain). for the population to take advantage of opportunities to spend their leisure time - jogging, cycling, children's games, gym, and a place for warm-up exercises, family outings and walks. The "core area of the health path," in the vicinity of park gazebo has a suspended bridge, five spaces with exercise elements such as a horizontal bar, even bars, ladders, slides, children's jumping facilities etc. There are several marked hiking trails from Letná - Pod Rozhlednou street, from the suburbs Pod Majákem, from the Prštné - Nerudova street and from Podhoří - U Slanice street. You will be helped to orient yourselve by available and detailed information signs.
13. Social events centre - the Interhotel Moskva
tel.: +420 577 561 111
link: www.moskva-zlin.cz

A study proposal by architect Mr. Miroslav Lorenc from 1931 resulted in a reinforced skeleton to be built. During the construction phase, Mr. T. Baťa and architect Lorenc had a disagreement and it was ordered that the fourth floor has two sample rooms built - one by architect Mr. Gahura and the other by architect Mr. Karfík. Based on the design of architect Mr. Karfík, the building was finished in 1933. The eleventh story building became in those day the main social events' centre in the city. The first and second floor has cafés, club facilities, games rooms and representative rooms. The hotel itself counts some 300 rooms. There is an observation deck on the eleventh floor. The hotel specializes in organizing various social events (e.g. Intemational children's and youth film festival and many more) and various company events in the congress hall and smaller salons. The hotel offers a wide selection of supplementary services - fitness centre with a whirlpool and sauna, solarium, cosmetics, bowling, souvenir stand, mini-mart, confectionery and more.
14. The Grand Theatre
tel.: +420 577 432 936
e-mail: velke.kino@ateliery.cz
link: www.velkekino.cz

The Grand theatre was initially built in 1933 as a temporary measure. The building was designed by the design department of The Baťa Company a.s., Zlín. The authorship is ascribed to the architect Mr. F. L. Gahura, but his authorship is proven only in adaptation of the interior in 1939. After the construction, the theatre was actually the first cultural facility in the city, meant for large number of spectators, which was then an unbelievable 2270 people! This was without a doubt one of the largest movie theatres in the pre-war Czechoslovakia and probably also in centra I Europe. It has become, with its simple design, an integral part of the city square and underlined the dominant position ofthe Social Events Centre - the Interhotel Moskva on its southem edge.
15. The Department store and "Tržnice" (The Market Hall)

The year 1927 saw the construction of the first department store, today's Market Hall, with kiosks wing, which were later tom down. Besides the stores, there was also a movie theatre. This building was designed and built by the A. Jambor Company, an "authorized civil engineer for architecture and land structures in Hranice". This was the first reinforced steel concrete in industrial building used for non-industrial, public facility. Just five years later in 1932, another nine-story department store was built near the first one. The project was most likely coauthored by the architect Mr. Gahura.
16. University of Tomáš Baťa
tel.: +420 576 031 111
link: www.utb.cz

On November 14th 2000 President Václav Havel signed a law establishing the Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín (UTB). which was the successful end of the legislative stage, necessary for the creation of the UTB. The preparatory work for creation of the UTB started in 1993 where the academic senate of the Faculty of Technical University in Zlín, had approved, together with the election of the dean and an election program, the creation of the university. The serious steps, leading to the establishment of the university may be considered namely the infra-structure preparation. ln 1995 a Faculty of Management and Economics was created and in 1997, the Institute of Commercial creation and Marketing Communications. In 1999, a Memorandum of University Incorporation in Zlín was declared, with senators, members of parliament, heads of departments, directors of schools and school boards ofthe Zlín's region in full attendance. At the present time there are 3,500 students attending the university from the Czech Republic and from abroad, which can today be attended either in daytime, long-distance and other study combinations. By the year 2005, the number of UTB students should reach 5,000. Two or three new faculties are expected to be further accredited and certainly the expansion of accommodation facilities will follow directly.
17. Zlín's skyscraper" The 21" Administrative building

The 21th Administrative building of the shoe factory - the Zlín's skyscraper- was one of the first multi-story buildings in Europe. It has merited, together with the entire industrial park of the former Baťa's Industries, a prize as "The Structure of the Century." The building was finished in 1938 according to the design of architect Mr. Vladimír Karfík. This seventeen-story building is 77,5 meters high. Each floor is de-facto a large office space for 200 clerical employees. Service areas (elevators, stairs, toilettes, air-conditioning) were built outside the main office space. The building is fully air conditioned, it has rapid elevators, individual elevators (called "Pater Noster") and as a structural and architectural candy, we can introduce you to the office of the company CEO, built in an elevator, measuring 6 x 6 meters with airconditioning and its own plumbing. Naturally, the inter-office pneumatic mail system, or electrical plugs built into the floor cannot go without mention. This is architecťs Mr. Karfík's Opus Magnum and the building is today designated as a national heritage building from the Art Deco period. After reconstruction, the offices of the District Regional Authority of Zlín will be occupying the building.
18. The Shoe and Footwear Museum
tel.: +420 577 522 225
link: www.muzeum.zlin.cz

The basis of the shoe museum exposition is a vast collection of historical and exotic footwear accumulated by the Baťa Company in the 1930s. The collection illustrates the growth of the shoe industry from the 15th century to this day. The collection has footwear samples from all continents of the world. The collection was first opened to the public in 1931. The Zlín Museum has thus has become the oldest shoe museums in the world. It documents the shoe manufacturing proces s and specifically, the industrial growth of shoe manufacturing in the Zlín region.
19. The Baťa Industrial park

The first factory buildings were sprouting up in 1906. There is no evidence of any architectural participation, even though arch. Mr. Gahura's cooperation is most likely. In 1924 the factory as it was, was being rebuilt. The old buildings were razed to the ground and replaced with new, modem ones, built with the latest available building technology. After brief research into the matter, a basic module of 6,15 x 6,15 m was selected. Standard étage building had a built-in vertical core with elevator, staircases and some supplementary levels. The reinforced steel concrete frame was filled out with parapets and windows. The number of floors ranged between two and five. The pillars were at first square; round pillars replaced them in 1930. The typified industrial buildings were placed in checker-board style into larger manufacturing units, mutually interconnected by a transportation element. The industrial development had a character of phase building. Individual buildings were gradual and in a short period built and put into operation. The concept of the standards used had removed the outside walls and had thus permitted total and absolute daylight throughout the entire workshop areas. This building concept system had achieved a mutual release from interdependence between construction and the technical parts of the building, therefore respecting the principles of universality, repetitiveness, variability and flexibility ofthe building and the technical parts.
The ultimate demise of the Baťa's successor Company - "Svit" - was principally predicated on the importation of cheap shoes from Asia, that Svit could not possible to compete against. This was further exacerbated by dual liabilities and the wrong recovery strategy that was prepared to get Svit out of its debt, which did not lead to Sviť s recovery but instead, to its ignominious end.
20. Chateau Zlín and the Museum of South Eastern Moravia
tel.: +420 577 004 611
e-mail: info@muzeum.zlin.cz
link: www.muzeum.zlin.cz

Money necessary for the acquisition of the chateau was provided to the city in 1929 by the city's Mayor Mr. Tomáš Baťa. The city made sure that the chateau served the public (in 1930, the building was leased to the Baťa's Support Fund) and the former ducal estate was renamed the People's House orthe Club House. Part ofthe premises were offered in the spring of 1931 to a small museum, which exhibited exotic footwear (until 1933). Otherwise the building's use was from the beginning quite eclectic. Part of it was used as hotel facilities (unti11933) or as employee housing (unti11935); some space was used by the Dvořák's School of Music other space was used by the Czechoslovak (Evangelical) Church and also the Baptist Church, The basement was used as a storage by the Baťa Department Store, but also as a Jewish Synagogue and a café (1935), This tremendous variety of use was changed in 1936 when the chateau was used mostly by administrative institutes of the Zlín District Office. During WWII, the building was used by the German occupants and after liberation in 1945, the building served as the headquarters to the Red Army and in August 1945, the chateau became the Secretariat of the Communist Party. At the beginning of the 1950s the building housed offices of military administration. An important change came in 1958 when the chateau became the museum seat and serves as cultural facility to this day. Besides offices and exhibition spaces of the Museum of South Eastern Moravia there are also exhibits from the State Art Gallery. The cellar, with its arched ceilings, has been the home ofthe famous chateau restaurant.
21. The villa of Tomáš Baťa
tel.: +420 577 219 083
e-mail: jitka@batova-vila.cz
link: www.batova-vila.cz

Building of the villa began back in 1901 by the František Novák Company from near-by town of Vizovice according to plans they themselves had drawn. Mr. Tomáš Baťa was not, however, very pleased with the result and while still under construction he handed the project over to the architect Mr. Jan Kotěra for redesign. The villa was finally finished according to this new design in 1911. The interior was decorated by the famous Czech painter Mr. Kysela and the gardens were proposed and designed by the architect Mr. Thomayer. The house had soon become not only a pleasant home, but also a place, where the young industrialist invited his friends and guests, among whom were not only his business partners but also famous scientists, artists, technicians, financiers, whom he'd consult for advice and sought business inspiration from. With time, the once beautiful villa became a mere torso. When, after 1989, Mr. T. Baťa returned to Zlín, he was unable to recognize his former home. The idea to restore the Baťa's villa to its original glorious style took long to germinate. The first step was the establishment of a Czech branch of the Tomáš Baťa Foundation. The aim was to recreate the closest possible reproduction of the original building. AII changes were done with sensitivity and precisely in the original architectural and style spirit. The Foundation is now housed in the newly reconstructed villa and presents here its own conferences, seminars, training programs, covering various subjects. Further, there are concert presentations, exhibits of new and known artists. The Foundation supports business and economic education in schools in cooperation with the Junior Achievement Organization. Some rooms in the villa are available as conference spaces to the public.
- Updated by Jan Vejmělek day ..25.05.2010 10:59
- Person responsible / department : Pavla Julinová / Oddělení cestovního ruchu, vnitřních a vnějších vztahů
