Birthplace of Jan Antonin Bata
The story of the Bata factories began in Zlín but the Bata boys brought their craft from the town of Uherské Hradiště, where the younger of the brothers, Jan Antonin Bata, was born. Today, his birth house serves as the seat of Jan Antonin Bata Foundation and as Baťovka soda production plant, restored by Robert Hájek.
Antonin Bata, a Zlín shoemaker and trader in confectionery, fruit and soda water, bought the house in the Rybárny district in Uherské Hradiště in 1886. He moved to Hradiště together with his sons Tomas and Antonin and daughter Anna from his first marriage. With his second wife, he had five more children, including Jan Antonin who together with Tomas became the driving force of the whole shoemaker's empire.
Did you know?
Jan Antonin Bata was originally called Jan Karel. He changed his name to Jan Antonin in honour of his father. But that's getting ahead of the story.
Hradiště was then a much richer and economically more successful region than hilly Zlín. Antonin Bata came here to make bottled soda water and produce something other than woolly boots, which would be again very fashionable today. In 1905, Antonin died suddenly and his wife Ludmila took over the company. Jan Antonin Bata fondly recalled his soda-making beginnings.
"We enjoyed washing soda bottles in big wooden tubs and we used to fetch water in big jugs. My mother had learned this trade from my father. Josef, who was about eighteen years old and at home, was mainly engaged in this trade. My mother knew the recipe for sodas and she used to go and buy the carbonic acid from Adler's on Prostřední Street or Laderer's on Krátká Street." You can learn more at batovka1897.cz.
Even today, the birth house of Jan Antonin Bata produces the traditional Baťovka 1897 sodas and lemonades. The production was restored by Robert Hájek, who is also responsible for the establishment of the Jan Antonin Bata Foundation and for the placement of a memorial plaque on the house as well as for the realisation of Jan Antonin Bata statue on the nearby embankment of the Morava River.
Although the current look of the house is not original, it reminds us of Bata architecture and brick houses, as well as of Jan Antonin Bata Villa in Zlín.
Opening hours
If you have any questions, please contact the Director of the Foundation, Mr. Petr Kopčil.
