kostel svatého Filipa a Jakuba ve Zlíně Church

The Church of Saint Philip and James stands in the center of Zlín and is the parish church of the local Roman Catholic parish. It is the original church of Zlín. It was built between 1390 and 1420 and has undergone several reconstructions since then.

The most fundamental change came at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The church no longer had sufficient capacity and it was not possible to expand it towards the east. The builders therefore changed its orientation from east to south. The tower, however, remained in its original place. The church was then struck by two devastating fires, in 1819 and in 1849. Each time the entire roof burned down and the tower was also damaged. Its present appearance dates from the time after the second fire, that is from the second half of the nineteenth century.

Inside the church there was once a painting of the patrons, Saints Philip and James, by the painter Josef Kessler from 1876. At the end of the seventies of the last century it was replaced by a mosaic by the artist Antonín Kloudá.

The fate of the bells is interesting. The original ones were confiscated during the First World War for war purposes. In 1920, two new steel bells, Philip and James and the Virgin Mary, were cast in Vítkovice. The money for them came from collections among the faithful and also from gifts from Tomáš Baťa, the owner of Count Haupt's estate and from fellow countrymen living overseas.

At the end of the twentieth century the Vítkovice bells began to corrode and their sound was no longer so pure. The faithful therefore organized a collection again and with its proceeds two new bells were made. The larger one weighs nine hundred kilograms and is dedicated to Saint Cyril and Methodius. It is decorated with scenes of both saints, their arrival in Moravia and the baptism of Prince Bořivoj. The smaller bell weighs three hundred and forty-five kilograms and is dedicated to Saint Zdislava. It reminds of her as a mother, a helper to those in need and a builder of the church. The bells were blessed by Bishop Josef Hrdlička in May 2008 and in September of the same year they were hung. The older bell Philip and James, weighing over two tons, remained in the tower. The bell of the Virgin Mary was placed on the floor of the intermediate level of the tower as a memorial.

Around the church there once lay a large cemetery, one of the oldest in Zlín. In 1842 it was relocated to a field above the Kudlovský stream near today's reservoir. After the opening of the Forest Cemetery it was closed in 1932 and abolished in 1949. Today there is a park on that spot.