History of Jelínkova Vila

 HOTEL - HISTORY

Hotel services and brewing activities have a tradition of hundreds of years in Velké Meziříčí but until now there was not any hotel or brewery in the Town District of Malá Stránka.
In the past, there used to be a mill (known as Buchtovský, later Malostránský and most recently Jarolímův). A special feature of this mill was the unusually long (920m) headrace used for multiple purposes. Its waters were used for driving especially three scoop wheels (for headwater, with a diameter of 3.16m), and these wheels in turn drove three compositions of the old configuration (millstones) and one mill reel sheller for grain known as hollander. Old block flour-sifting machines were used for separation of flour from grain chaff.

The mill building used to be on the ground floor level, connected with the residential part.  The first mention about the mill dates back to 1588, when a Mr. Jíra worked there as a mill operator, serving for Zdeněk Leopold and Jetřich Berků. In 1614 the mill was registered as property of the Municipality of Velké Meziříčí.
From that time to 1904 the mill had 11 owners. The mill was subsequently returned to the property of the Municipality which sold it for 14,000.- crowns to the then factory owner, Karel Jelínek (who was at that time the owner of the firm “Antonín Jelínek and Son”, a leather factory in Velké Meziříčí), under the condition that he was to build there a power station and supply the town with electricity.

Karel Jelínek met the condition, demolished the old mill and in the same place constructed (in 1904 – 1907)               a residential villa (quite modern for that time) and a water power station on the original mill headrace. It was formed by a Francis turbine with a direct-current dynamo. It supplied electricity not only to the newly constructed villa and Jelínek’s factory but also to the municipal building, Obecník – the only entertainment center in the town, municipal savings bank and Sokol gymnasium. The commencements of electricity production date back to 1905. After the renovation of the power station (approximately in 1915), the firm “Ant. Jelínek and Son” started to supply the entire Town of Velké Meziříčí with electrical energy – direct current with a voltage of 220 V. In the 1930s, the power station was upgraded again, and alternating current (with a voltage of 380/220 V) was introduced to the town as well. This small water power station, together with the second steam power plant of Mr. Jelínek, supplied the entire town with electricity until nationalisation in 1946.
The supplies for the town ended in 1947. 

During the years the building started to be called as Jelínkova vila (Jelínek’s Villa)  by local people. The villa remained a part of the assets of Jelínek’s leatherworks until nationalisation of the entire factory in 1948. In the era of state-owned enterprises, such as Dekva Brno in 1948-1950, ZAZ -Závody Antonína Zápotockého in 1950-1961 and Svit Gottwaldov from 1961 it served as a residential building only.
The turbine for electricity generation was not used anymore and got corroded. In approximately 1987 it was dismantled, with the consent of the director of the “Svit” enterprise, for the purpose of its further use, and a part of the power station was scrapped.
The actual building became the property of the town again and due to its poor maintenance it gradually became unsuitable for residential use.  The year 1989 brought, however, new hopes for Jelínek’s villa as well. In 1992, the entire real property was purchased (besides the waterworks) by Ing. Lubomír Jurek, Executive Head of AQUEKO, spol. s r.o. and after several years of hard work he built there a modern hotel with a mini-brewery and a restaurant.

_{^{Drawn up according to the background information provided by Mr. Vladimír Makovský and the Edition of “130 Years of Leatherworks - Velké Meziřičí”.}}

THE JELINEK FAMILY

Karel Jelínek (August 10, 1864  –  August 10, 1935) son of Antonín Jelínek (January 7, 1839 – July 21, 1901) founder of the firm “Antonín Jelínek and Son”, leather factory in Velké Meziříčí, and father of Antonín Jelínek (May 12, 1897 –  January 2, 1980), who continued in the family leatherwork tradition and later on became the Chairman of the Town Council.

He studied for several years at the Jihlava Comprehensive Secondary School and then started to work as an apprentice in the plant of his father. After completion of the apprentice vocational training courses he attended the two-year course at the Leatherwork School forming a part of the State Industrial School in Vienna. He specialised mainly in chrome tanning, where he introduced a lot of innovations. He was the first in Europe to produce the so-called rubber calf leathers.
Karel Jelínek was not only an excellent leatherwork expert, but like his father he was active in public life as well. He constructed a power station and brought electricity to Velké Meziříčí, on its plot of land established a public swimming facility for the town, he was the Chairman of the Committee for the Construction of the Railway Velké Meziříčí – Křižanov – Nové Město na Moravě, he was the Chief of the 19^th Fire Fighting Group of the Krška Local Fire Brigade and a leading member of many other organisations.

Drawn up according to the Edition of “130 Years of Leatherworks - Velké Meziřičí”.

MALOSTRÁNSKÝ MILL (1588 – 1904)
The Malostránský mill known also as Buchtovský and later on as Jarolímův used to be situated on the right Balinka river bank and on the right side of the road, immediately behind the bridge over the Balinka river. It was a smaller ground-floor construction with the main entrance (gate door) in the middle. The right side was dedicated to the milling plant and the left side hosted residential premises.

As far as the technical condition of the mill is concerned, only little information is known. There should allegedly be 3 sets for flour and stamp mills (for production of pot barley and grouts), all were driven by water wheels – the last one probably by a Francis turbine. The mill was originally situated on the outskirts of the town, behind the gate at the ford (later on the bridge) across the Balinka river on the way towards the town Třebíč. Through a gradual development followed by construction activities in the town and its surroundings, the mill found itself in the developed southern part of the town at a busy road, which was without any doubt its great advantage in comparison with many other mills. A disadvantage was, however, formed by the headrace whose length was about 1 km, which was bringing water from the weir (sluice) near to the today’s street known as Nová Říše. The original function of the headrace (raceway) was extended with another two functions later on, namely to supply fishponds of local lords with water and (still later) to supply the municipal swimming facility with water. At this time it is used only for the fishponds of the Moravian Fishery Association

The mill was usually called “Malostránský” according to the mill position – because it was situated in Malá Stránka. The second name “Buchtovský” was used for the mill for centuries due to the well-known mill holder Jan Buchta, who bought the mill from a miller known as Jíra sometimes after 1588. His son Jiří Buchta took over the mill after him. The third and last name of the mill is derived from the last owner Jan Jarolím. His wife Antonia (as the widow) sold the mill together with the waterworks on 13 April 1904 to the Town of Velké Meziříčí. And the town sold it still in the same year (on 11 November) for 14,000 crowns to Karel Jelínek, owner of the leather processing factory. Before the purchase of the mill, Mr. Jelínek agreed to set up a power station in the mill and to supply electricity to the town for its illumination. He fulfilled his promise and during the subsequent year (1905) he cancelled the mill and constructed a small power station there. Thus the town could enjoy its electricity also in certain households and offices (it is necessary to stress that at that time the use of electricity was accepted with little confidence only, and its introduction in the household was expensive as well). At that time, quite soon, he pulled down the old building of the mill and in its place he built a representative residential building, very nice from the viewpoint of the trends prevailing at that time. This building started to be called by people as “Jelínkova vila”. He replaced the existing old and weak (approximately 10 HP-15 kW) Francis water turbine with a more powerful Kaplan turbine with a power output of about 15 HP-20 kW. It served well for its purpose until nationalisation of the factory of Antonín Jelínek (son of Karel Jelínek) in 1947. Then it was lying there without any use until a day in 1987 when a Mr. Š of Bory removed it with the consent of the director of the SVIT plant Bohumil Příhoda, and then he used it for a similar purpose.

Since we skipped several centuries, we must return back to the old days.
From the memoirs of Antonín Střecha it is furthermore possible to learn that the people from Meziříčí experienced some troubles relating to the Malostránský mill as well. At the beginning of the 17^th century they bought it from Jiří Buchta, wanting to cover many municipal expenditures by using the yields from the mill. Instead of profits, however, the mill brought them troubles and difficulties only, and that is why they were forced to sell this mill in 1687. Nothing helped, not even the fact that Zdeněk Berka of Dubá liberated the mill in 1614 from the annual payment of 1 florin and 28 mites and from all statute-labour. Since the municipality did not have its own miller, it put the mill into leasehold to Pavel Švejda and then to Martin Vašek. This could be also one of the causes why the mill did not bring the profit expected.

The municipality sold the mill (1687) to Josef Sedlinský, miller on the local lord’s mill under the castle, with 3 sets for flour, stamp mills and all the accessories for 60 Mor. three scores (700 florins). During this transaction the municipality reserved an option right for the mill purchase in the case that Sedlický intended to sell the mill.
The upgraded mill was bought in 1706 by Jan Eliáš Hamža for 620 three scores (723 florins 20 mites), who sold it several years later (1738) to František Šimáček at the same price. The Šimáček family stayed at the mill until 1795, when the mill was bought by František Vala with his wife Anna for 1450 florins. They subsequently passed the mill to the young spouses František and Anna Vala.