zruc nahled

Bata's Zruč

Bata's industrial traces in Zruč nad Sázavou:
A web portal dedicated to the professional processing and popularization of Bata's past and present in Zruč nad Sázavou.

Get to know individual objects and personalities

Semi-detached house with a grocery store

The population of "new Zruč" grew rapidly after the arrival of Bata, a. s., Zlín. Therefore, it was necessary to provide basic amenities for the newcomers and residents of Bata in Zruč. Since at the turn of 1939 and 1940 only the first factory building and the oldest residential houses stood in the factory town of Zruč nad Sázavou - Bat'ov, the grocery store was located in one of the newly built double houses of the Zruč 1939 type. The semi-detached house was situated in the lower part of the housing estate near the future town centre, specifically in today's Školní Street No. 527.

Detail of the building

01/07

Semi-detached house Zruč 1939

The most common type of company dwelling house in Zruč nad Sázavou - Bat'a were semi-detached houses. They were inhabited by employees who stood approximately in the middle of the local company's professional hierarchy. A total of 108 semi-detached houses were built in Zruč, of which 75 were of the Zruč 1939 type.

Detail of the building

02/07

Single-family house Zruč

The most comfortable mass-built residential houses of the Bata Concern, a. s., Zlín, were single-family houses. There are eleven of them in the Bata factory town of Zruč nad Sázavou. They were built in 1939-1940 as part of the first stage of the construction of family houses between today's Okružní and 5. května streets.

Detail of the building

03/07

Director's Villa

The precursor of the villa of the factory manager in Zruč, on a triangular-shaped plot near the factory grounds, was probably the villa of Stanislav Landa in Zlín, which was built as an individual family house to accommodate a high-ranking Bata employee. In Zlín, he was the founder and head of the chemical research institute of the Bata concern, a. s., Zlín. The appearance of the exterior of the Zlín and Zruč buildings is almost identical, apart from the later addition and the solid brickwork, which is typical of Zlín buildings. The interior layout also suggests that the zruč director's villa was built to an identical design as the Landova villa in Zlín. While the Zlín villa was roofed with a hipped roof at the time of its construction, after a change of design, the zruč plant manager's house did not receive it until the 1950s. Both villas were built in 1939. The Zruč villa was handed over for use on 25 May 1940.

Detail of the building

04/07

Women's liberation house

In addition to the family housing, which in Zruč nad Sázavou - Bat'a occupies the largest built-up area of the factory town, the Bat'a Concern, a. s., Zlín, also built a bachelor's room for young employees. According to the original regulatory plan of R. H. Podzemný from 1939, the mass accommodation was situated between the factory and the residential area, in the vicinity of the social centre.

Detail of the building

05/07

School

Education, first and foremost employee education, was a strategic part of the Bata system. In Zruč nad Sázavou - Bata, too, the Bata School of Labour began operating immediately after the start of production in May 1939. At first it was taught in the factory, later in the factory building. After the completion of "the most modern school building in the region", both the general school (March 1941) and the shoemaker's school were moved there, and later the Bata School of Young Women's Work (September 1942).

Detail of the building

06/07

Factory buildings

According to the principles defined in the company manual The Ideal Industrial Town (1938), the production area of the Bat'a Concern, a. s., Zlín, in Zruč nad Sázavou - Bat'a was situated between the Sázava River and the railway line. The factory space follows the course of the river and the railway line in a U-shape. According to the original regulatory plan, nine factory buildings were to be built in Zruč. However, the ongoing war conflict of the Second World War eventually made it possible to realise only two factory buildings.

Detail of the building

07/07

Jan Antonín Bata

Jan (Karel) Antonín Bata was born in Uherské Hradiště to Ludmila and Antonín Bata. Jan's father and his siblings from his father's first marriage, Anna, Antonín and Tomáš, ran a shoemaking business.

Personality detail

07/07

Miroslav Drofa

At the age of 20, Miroslav Drofa, a graduate of the Higher School of Building Industry in Pilsen (1923-1927), started working as a builder and budgeter (assistant and draughtsman) in the building department of the T. & A. Bat'a company in Zlín (1928).

Personality detail

07/07

Josef Kolb

Josef Kolb came from Zlín, where, like many of his compatriots and peers, he found employment with the Bat'a company. In 1941, he was sent by Bata with other Zlín employees to the new concern plant in Zruč nad Sázavou - Bata, where he was also actively involved in cultural and social life, especially as a member of an amateur theatre group.

Personality detail

07/07

Josef Pavliš

Josef Pavliš was born in Nová Ves near Chotěbor in a family of agricultural workers. After his father's fatal accident and his mother's subsequent early death, he was soon orphaned. He graduated from the municipal school in his native Nová Ves, and completed the lower grades of the civic (burgher) school in Chotěbor. The last years of Pavliš's primary schooling were marked by the events of Munich 1938, the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the outbreak of the Second World War.

Personality detail

07/07

Václav Rojt

Václav Rojt, a native of Domažlice and a trained salesman, arrived in Zlín after jobs in Most, Domažlice and Uherské Hradiště. Starting from 1 June 1910, he rose in the company hierarchy until he was entrusted with a key task during the First World War - the management of shoe production.

Personality detail

07/07

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Follow in the footsteps of the Bata phenomenon

Discover the Bata past of Zruč nad Sázavou. Get to know the objects, personalities and industrial phenomena of the modern history of Zruč.

Map with objects of the Trail

Other sources of information about Zruč nad Sázavou

Město Zruč

City of Zruč nad Sázavou

www.mesto-zruc.cz
Zámek Zruč

Zruč nad Sázavou Castle

www.zamek-zruc.cz