Architect wants the state to declare the Baťa Canal a technical monument

photo: batacanal.cz

Veselí nad Moravou (Hodonínsko) - Today afternoon, Brno architect Ivo Ondračka submitted a proposal at the post office counter in the port of Veselí nad Moravou in Hodonín to declare the Baťa Canal a technical monument. The canal is one of the largest tourist attractions in Moravia. Last year, it attracted about 65,000 tourists. The Ministry of Culture will now deal with Ondračka's proposal.
According to Ondračka, it is "an illusion to try to develop the operation of a technical monument without the active participation of the often much-maligned heritage experts." The architect, who has been involved with the canal for more than 15 years and proposed its use for tourism in the early 1990s, told ČTK that the Baťa Canal needs another impulse, a new quality. This could come from its declaration as a technical monument.
According to Ondračka, it is especially about deeper cooperation, involving experts from the fields of culture, but also ecology. "Otherwise, in a few years, it could become just a dump of various realized dreams of different investors, with much higher costs and still the same quality of use," Ondračka noted. According to him, tourism primarily develops in architecturally valuable areas. In this context, he criticized the number of small harbors, extensions, modifications, and improvements that gradually distort the functionalist legacy of the building.
The well-known waterway between Otrokovice and Rohatec in Hodonín attracted about 65,000 tourists to the region last year. Thus, it became one of the most important tourist destinations in Moravia. The Baťa Canal is also popular among cyclists. A parallel bike path runs along the canal. The main route is connected to paths between Kroměříž, Napajedly, and Uherský Ostroh.
The canal was built in the 1930s, primarily for the transportation of lignite from Ratíškovice to Otrokovice. The waterway, which partially follows the course of the Morava River, is more than 50 kilometers long. The artificially built sections are 1.5 meters deep, and the bottom is six meters wide.