Obecní úřad Municipal house

Welcome to Dashice. Right now, you're standing in front of a building that, both its size and its size, dominates the whole neighborhood. In front of you is the municipal office, a local town hall that immediately attracts the attention of anyone who enters the square named after Thomas Garriguel Masaryk. Notice how this storey structure of red bricks filled the space on the east corner of the square and how strictly, yet elegantly, defines the space around it. It is a building that emits stability and dignity, while telling a story about the ambition and development of this village during the first half of the last century.

Let us now stop at how this building was built and in what context it was built. The current town hall dates to a thousand and nine hundred twenty-five. By that time, modern architecture was already in full swing and was looking for new ways to express the importance of public buildings. The author of this project was architect Milan Babuška. His aim was to create a space that was not just an administrative centre, but a real symbol of the village. The building thus represents a high-quality representative of modern and so-called decorative, a style that combined clean lines with fine decorative elements. Thanks to its value, the town hall is today protected as a cultural monument, which means that the state recognises its uniqueness and importance for the whole area.

Now please pay attention to the architecture itself and the details that you can see right in front of you. Take a look at the facade made of bricks that gives the building its characteristic colour tone and feeling of strength. Notice how the building is located in the square space. Her position on the corner is not random, she should have been visible from several directions at the same time. Now, please, look up towards the top of the building. Notice there a very interesting element, which is the bay placed above the roof. This exiting element dominates the whole building and gives it a vertical dimension. This detail is so distinctive that the building resembles traditional clock towers, although the tower itself is not a separate building. It is a clever architectural element that combines modern style with the tradition of administrative buildings.

When you look at the present town hall like this, you might wonder if this is what the city centre always looked like. However, the history of administration buildings in Dashic is much more dramatic and constantly linked to the fight against fire. If we look deeper into the past, we'll find that the path to this brick building was thorny. The first mention introduced us until the year one thousand five hundred seventy one, when half the oldest wooden town hall was sold. At that time, a very interesting condition was attached to the sale, namely the obligation to maintain the turret, which was probably a symbol of the power and autonomy of the municipality.

Unfortunately, wooden structures were prone to fires, which happened repeatedly in Dashic. In the year six hundred seventy-nine, when the region was flooded with a 30-year war, the second town hall burned down. But not only the walls and the roof, but also the rare documents, namely the book of a thousand five hundred sixty-two, which was a huge loss of historical records for the municipality. But the community did not take the determination to build on. Three years later, in the year six hundred and eighty two, a new town hall was built, this time located right in the middle of the square to be in the very heart of the happening.

But history repeated itself. In the year one thousand eight hundred thirty came another devastating fire that consumed not only the town hall but also the neighboring houses. Imagine the chaos and sadness the people had to experience when they saw their administrative center disappear into the ashes again. There was a period of provisions and adjustments. In a thousand and eight hundred and fifty-five, a remodeled house with the number seventeen was used behind the town hall. However, these solutions were temporary, and with the advent of the new century and the new state that helped to build Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, something was needed to match the new era. That's how we got to the year one thousand nine hundred twenty-five, when the building you're standing in front of was built.

It's fascinating to realize that this monumental brick structure is actually a victory over the unfortunate events of the past. While the previous town hall was consumed by fire, this building from the year one thousand nine hundred twenty-five stands firm and reminds us of how the needs and aesthetic preferences of the population changed. It's where history meets modern.

The interesting thing that may interest you is the contrast between the fragility of wooden structures from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the mass of this brick structure. If you look at her walls, think of them as a symbol of stability. While previously the town hall was in the centre of the square or in the rebuilt house, the present building has its position on the corner symbolically embracing the entire area of Masaryka Square. It's an architecture that doesn't have to be a hiding place for the books, but it becomes a business card for the whole village.

Now I just recommend that you take a quiet look at the entire facade of the building and try to imagine how the fate of the village has been decided in these areas over the last ten decades. Feel the atmosphere of this place, which combines the administrative order and deep history.

Thank you for spending a moment with us at this beautiful monument. We now invite you to explore Dashic again. Go through the rest of the square, see the surrounding architecture and look for clues of the past in every detail. We wish you a pleasant continuation of your journey and a pleasant day.