The Baťa skyscraper has been standing in Zlín for 75 years

Prague - The skyscraper of the Zlín footwear company Baťa was officially completed 75 years ago, on December 15, 1938. At the turn of 1938 and 1939, the company management moved into it. At that time, this 77.5-meter tall skyscraper was the second tallest building in Europe (only surpassed by the Palace of the General Banking Union in Antwerp, Belgium, at 87 meters). The building still attracts attention with its elegance and natural incorporation into Baťa's city. However, the then CEO Jan Antonín Baťa did not enjoy building number 21 for long, as he did not return to Czechoslovakia after the German occupation.
    The house from the studio of architect Vladimír Karfík rose within just two years from the laying of the foundations. It is stated that 40 workers with four cranes constructed the reinforced concrete skeleton of the Zlín skyscraper in 160 days.
    Jan Antonín Baťa had a special office in the skyscraper, which still attracts the interest of experts and the public. One of the columns of the "cells" that make up the structure of the skyscraper did not have floors and thus actually formed a huge elevator shaft. Inside, there was a cabin measuring six by six meters, in which the director had a fully equipped office.
    In November 1944, the building accidentally escaped damage during the bombing that destroyed part of Baťa's factory, and after February 1948, its appearance was significantly changed only by the extension of the sample room on the rooftop terrace from the late 1950s. The Zlín skyscraper underwent major renovations only at the beginning of the 21st century, and the transformation into the seat of the regional and financial office in 2003 and 2004 cost 630 million crowns. The sensitive modification of the famous building even won an award in the Grand Prix competition of the Architects' Association.