Women's Lib

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.

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Originally, eight bachelor's quarters were to be built - four for men behind the present Bat'ov Hotel, four for women on the other side of the square. The building permits and drawings of the "Type I and II bachelor's quarters" are stored in the building files of the Zruč nad Sázavou Municipal Office, but only one building was realized. Although the built bachelor's house is located in a zone originally intended for men, according to the inventory of company property from 1945 it was used by women. The building permit was issued on 20 August 1939, but construction did not begin until the autumn of 1940. It was completed in August 1941. The building is attributed to the architect Miroslav Drof in the specialized literature, but the plans from the building files of the Department of Construction in Zruč nad Sázavou are signed by the architect Vladimír Kubečka.

Rear view of the women's liberty house under construction in a photograph from 27 November 1940 (Photoclub Zruč nad Sázavou).

The women's liberty house is a partially basemented three-storey building of corridor type. As in the case of family houses, its foundations are concrete, the upper structure is brick and the ceilings are wooden. A shallow central bay in the front facade with a balcony on the first floor, which also covers the entrance door, lends the building its decorative character. The building is plastered and brick cladding is used around the windows and under the wide crown cornice. A modern feature is a large window on the rear elevation illuminating the staircase.

On the ground floor there was a two bedroom caretaker's flat with a window to the entrance hall and corridor, eight bedrooms and communal washrooms. A large lounge with access to a balcony dominated the first floor. There were also (as on the ground floor) eight bedrooms and shared washrooms. The second floor had ten bedrooms, washrooms and a hall opposite the staircase.

On all floors a long corridor ran through the centre of the building, lit by French windows. The floors in the corridors were painted with red cement screed, xylolite was used in the ground floor rooms and plank flooring in the first floor rooms. The washrooms, always with two toilets, a bidet and a bathtub, were tiled inside. There was one washbasin in each room.

Panorama of New Zruč with the factory (left background), the company houses (left foreground), the women's bachelor party (right foreground) and the company hotel (right background) (Photoclub Zruč nad Sázavou).

Until the 1990s, the women's liberty served its purpose and was used as a boarding school. Nowadays its premises are rented out to local entrepreneurs, mostly in the service sector. The building has undergone only partial interior alterations, while the exterior has seen the replacement of the entrance door and minor repairs to the facade.

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Mgr. Jana Tomalová

Mgr. Jana Tomalová (1988) studied at the Seminar of Art History at Masaryk University in Brno. In her graduation theses she focused on the specific architecture and urbanism of the Bata concern, especially Zruč nad Sázavou, where she comes from. In Zruč she is involved in activities connected with the Bata concern. She contributed a chapter on the construction of the factory town to the comprehensive publication Zruč nad Sázavou (2018).

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