What really drew our attention to the castle and eventually led to the establishment of a charitable trust, was the information that a potential lessee was planning to turn the Zlín castle into a giant beer house. A building located in the town centre, close to the market and to the station - what more could you ask for? After many discussions and meetings with different people of different professions, we confirmed out view of the uniqueness of what is by far the oldest monument in our town: It IS our Zlín treasure that deserves a better future!
From the historical perspective, Zlín is actually still new and young. More than 95% of us living here have their ancestors only in the third or fourth generation, and we have only a few houses preserved in their original form that are older than a hundred years. The building the castle with its 500-year-old walls is actually the only physical link with the ancient past of the place in which our town grew. Zlín is globally famous thanks to its modern history, connected with the Baťa Company. Perhaps that is the reason why the building of the castle was not in the main focus of the town and its inhabitants. However, the castle belongs to our family silver!
When the town of Zlín was looking for a new use for the building after the Museum of Southeast Moravia and the Regional Gallery of Fine Arts left it, we tried in a small team to create a sensible idea for the future use of the castle. Needless to say, we are neither politicians, nor historians, preservationists, architects, developers, or experts on everything. We are a group of people with different professions and experience. We all have some experience in project management, governance and management of companies, and managing our employees. That includes worrying about assets, investments, and our people. We tried to use much of what we have learned so far when formulating the future use of the castle. We do it for ourselves as citizens, for our people, for our town. And everything we do revolves around the basic idea that whatever is going to happen inside the castle must respect its historical value. In principle, the building itself must always be the decisive element.
The future use of the castle should consist of a combination of the activities of the municipal authorities and of the private sector, partly because we want to run the castle efficiently. In an survey organized by the town council, the people of Zlín expressed their opinion clearly – they would like to see a restaurant, exhibit spaces, and a ceremonial hall in the castle, in other words, they want to be able to visit the castle again (for example, we do not have a museum in Zlín that would present a comprehensive history of the town). Areas in which a more effective way of management is expected, such as a restaurant, café, gallery, club) should be left to private management... Ideally, some activities will be run in cooperation with the local authorities, such as the gallery, cabinets devoted to Zlín’s personalities, but also exhibitions, concerts, festivals, markets and fairs, demonstrations of crafts and more.
The conceptual project of the use of the castle is being put together by a joint team with representatives of the town of Zlín. However, responsible for the final form is the Zlínský zámek charitable trust.
The preparation for the complete architectonic study of the future use of the castle is currently awaiting confirmation after the structural and historical research was performed. If everything goes according to plan, we will be able to present our plans for use of the castle to the public at the beginning of summer.
When thinking about how and what could and should incorporate into the project for the use of the castle, we came across the year 2022. In this year, we will be celebrating the 700th anniversary of the first written mention of Zlín. In accordance with the representatives of the town of Zlín we think that we should try to take advantage of this chance. We should not only clean up our town and decorate it with ribbons. It is an opportunity to get seriously acquainted with the history of our city and region. To become more rooted or to take roots equally strong as the Zlín castle. We see our town slowly depopulating, losing its inhabitants and its credit of uniqueness that it had for years. With our project of the castle we would like to join those who want a change and do even do something for it.
The Zlínský zámek charitable trust was registered by the Regional Court in Brno on November 2, 2012. Its principal subject of business is the promotion of the historical and cultural heritage of the building of the Zlín castle, the management, operation and use of the buildings of the Zlín castle and adjacent areas, dissemination and popularization of cultural values in the field of art, history of the Zlín region and preservation of cultural monuments. Coordination of activities aimed at the reconstruction, revitalization and further development of the Zlín castle, cooperation and communication between entrepreneurial entities and educational institutions in Zlín, cooperation with state and local governments as well as with natural and legal persons related to the use of the Zlín castle as one of the centres of social and cultural life in Zlín.
Founding members: Martina Dlabajová, Václav Čmolík , Jiří Havlík, Libor Láznička, Jaroslav Šuranský, Čestmír Vančura
