Factory Premises

The construction of Baťovany, an ideal industrial city, began with the construction of a factory complex. The original intention was to produce machine tools and bicycles in this satellite. These were never produced there due to political changes: the creation of the Slovak State (1939) and the resulting border between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Therefore a decision was made to produce shoes in order to cover the demand of the Baťa store in the territory of the Slovak state.

 

The foundations of the first three-storey production building were laid on August 8, 1938. The emerging production area was situated parallel to the existing train line, north of it, in the spirit of urbanism of an ideal industrial city. At the same time, the track formed a natural barrier between the factory area and the rest of the city, which was proposed and later implemented south of the factory and the track according to the master plans of the architect Jiří Voženílek (1909–1986).

 

The first four production buildings (marked as 40, 41, 60, 61), two three-storey and two five-storey, were built between 1938 and 1941. They are standardised Baťa production buildings, a reinforced concrete skeleton with a column span of 6.15 x 6.15 m with 13 bays in length and 3 bays in width of the building and a service, centrally positioned cube, which housed changing rooms, sanitary facilities and a central staircase. During this period, a boiler room with a power plant was also built on the premises, which served the factory and the rest of the city.

 

Shoe production began in 1939 and relatively quickly, since the first three-storey building was not yet glazed. This caused outages of the steam engine and electricity. During heavy rain, production had to be interrupted, because it rained on the workers. The workshops were equipped with machines transferred from the nearby production in Bošany and Zlín. In the first months of production, two workshops were established. By the end of 1939, eight workshops and a handling department were operating and 940,000 pairs of leather shoes had been produced. The workshops were staffed by employees of the company from Bošany and Slovaks from Zlín, where about 50 Slovaks remained and about 600 of them came to Slovakia.

 

The reaction to the shortage of leather soles in 1941 was the production of clogs, first with leather and then with a cloth upper. From this year until the end of the war, production encountered problems. In addition to the lack of material, a significant factor complicating production was the outbreak of the Slovak National Uprising, in which around 1,200 factory employees took part, which constituted almost half of the employees, since at that time the company employed 2,642 people. The lack of material in production also slowed down the development of the factory area during the war. The construction of another (fifth) three-storey building, which was to serve as an administration building, began in 1943, but this construction was not completed until after the war. Despite the unfinished administrative building, construction of another production building began in 1944. It was a prototype of a production building by architect Jiří Voženílek. It responded to the undersized changing rooms and sanitary facilities that were evident in the old type of building and at the same time improved the internal layout of the halls, where the same column spacing proved to be unsuitable for the width of the building. While production was located in the outer bays, the middle bay served for the transport of semi-finished products.

 

Voženílek expanded the outer fields and so the new span of the columns was the 7.85 x 6.15 x 7.85 m in the width of the building. He also expanded the changing rooms and sanitary facilities, for which he created mezzanines in the outer fields of each floor. The same type of building was also built in 1946 in Baťovany. This type of production building by Voženílek was subsequently built in Zlín (building 14 in 1946 and building 15 in 1947). In the last days of the war, the factory was shelled by artillery and all factory buildings, including the boiler room and brickyard, were damaged. Their restoration took place in 1945; none of the buildings had to be pulled down.

 

After nationalisation, the company was named “Závody 29. augusta” (The Factory of August 29). Production expanded from leather shoes to include rubber shoes. During this period, the factory grew northward. It respected the grid established in the location of production halls, but significantly outgrew the planned concept. The last master plan contained 14 production buildings (not counting the boiler room and smaller service buildings). Seven were implemented, but the area grew to more than 30 production buildings between 1948 and 1989, and together with smaller service buildings it was more than 50.

 

The 1990s brought about the privatisation of the area. Today, the buildings are privately owned by many owners. The public administration does not own any of the former production facilities. Some buildings are used for shoemaking, others are used by smaller or larger companies focusing on different production areas. Other buildings are falling into disrepair. The first attempts at a more multipurpose usage of the buildings are emerging - mainly as commercial premises. The Fabrika umenia association is developing an activity to regenerate building no. 61 into a cultural and community centre.

 

From the point of view of monument protection, many original elements such as plaster, windows, and railings have been preserved on the Baťa buildings. In the warehouses, you can still find the first shoemaking machines with the Baťa logo embossed on them. Around 2010, the Baťa heating plant was demolished, its function during the communist era of the factory having been replaced by a large heating plant. Not even that survived to this day; only the chimney remains. Voženílek's prototype from 1944 now has a tasteless yellow-blue façade. The Monuments Office of the Slovak Republic is interested in declaring the 6 oldest buildings national cultural monuments; this process is currently in operation, during which time the owners must treat the buildings as if they were already listed. It may certainly help to preserve many of the original elements and save the buildings from demolition. The factory area in Baťovany was immersed in greenery in the spirit of the garden city concept. The concept of a factory in gardens is still noticeable in the area, especially around the original Baťa buildings. 

With the upcoming revitalisation of these buildings, it is necessary to also think about public space and the cultivation of greenery in the spirit of the original concept.

 

 

KJ