
Zlín, the commercial and industrial centre of south-east Moravia, lies three hundred kilometres to the east of Prague. An important turning point in the history of Zlín came in 1894 with the foundation of the Bata shoe company. Thanks to Bata, above all his reforms, a small town with 5,000 inhabitants soon developed into a large town with a population of almost 50,000. Prominent domestic and foreign architects were commissioned to dress the town in modern Functionalist garb. The town`s oldest ecclesiastical monument, St Philip and James` Church, dates back to the beginning of modern times. Serving formerly as aristocratic residences, the Zlín Chateau and Malenovice Castle are now home to museum exhibitions.