"Not wreaths or monuments - but the golden trace that remains - a world that is all the more beautiful because you were here". Gritting meadow Forest Cemetery Zlín
I again walked through the Forest Cemetery in Zlín. Incredible atmosphere, as if you were in a temple, symbolizing the eternal connection between man and nature. Its foundation came from Tomas Bata - and he was the first to be buried there... To the criticism of connecting the cemetery with the forest, when the roots of the trees will disturb the graves and the remains of the deceased, Tomas Bata replied in the sense of "what can be more beautiful than when human remains serve the trees for further growth and life, to which they return in another way..."
His grave and that of the Bata family have been under renovation for two months. Let's hope that everything will be done by the 90th anniversary of Tomas Bata's tragic death (12.7.2022).
I also recommend a visit to the Tomáš Bata Memorial. Courtesy of the excellent guide Bc. Jan Marada, I have made an audio recording of his very interesting information. Incredible information about Tomas Bata and Zlín. For example, he didn't promote the idea of "greenery to cities", but the opposite "cities to greenery".
I have made a colourful Photo Gallery from Zlín, partly with English texts. Interesting and very informative reading. Unfortunately, the reminder brochure of the life of Tomas Bata's rife Maria Bata was already available in the social centre only in English, and the last piece at that. The same goes for the book "Má dáti - dal" with the subtitle "I accounted with the Bata family", where only an unsold sample remains. Hopefully the stock will be replenished here soon. Even so, I brought many books for the weeks of reading. The Bata brothers - Tomáš and Jan Antonín, can be read, discovered, and inspired by their lives and thoughts, for a lifetime. I had just enough money left over for the trip home J
I spent the night in the former Social House, built during the time of Tomáš Bata in 1930-1933. The hotel originally had a café, restaurant, ballrooms, and a dance hall, with a café and observation deck on the top floor. It had 300 rooms and a capacity of 700 people. Later it was renamed to Hotel Moskva, today it is being "de-named" to Hotel Zlin.
By the way, I once personally met the director of Bata's shops, Jan Knapp, as an old gentleman in Lucerne, Switzerland. He was in charge of the Bata shoe stores. He still had the Bata spirit and admiration for Tomas Bata. This was in the 1980s. Mr. Knap's daughter was the wife of Dr. Miroslav Vlček, the founder of Sokol Lucerne, where he was mayor for many years. He also worked for the Bata family in Zlín as a chemist and told us a lot of stories. For health reasons, he was unable to present his lecture at the Bata Conference in Zlín. I arranged for it to be read at the conference by the publisher of books on Bata, Mr. Mark Belza (after not being allowed to read it myself) - it ends aptly: "All is lost for Zlín and whether one likes it or not, it is mainly due to two men: Benes and T.Bata Jr. !
Jan Šinágl, 30. 4. 2022
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