#Healthcare facility #Trenčianske Teplice #1930
Nemocenská pokladna soukromých zřízenců a úředníků
Ľudovíta Štúra 333/8
914 51
Trenčianske Teplice,
Slovakia
Public transport: Pošta
Today's use: abandoned
Description
A magnificent building that looks different from every side, following the different functions inside. The long side of the building with its many small balconies faces the park to the east. Those balconies are often compared with Walter Gropius's balconies in Dessau. The rooms of the sanatorium were located in this part of the building. In keeping with a stay at a health resort, you can imagine that people got up early. The rising sun helped them to get up. The folding windows, which allow the window area to be fully opened, are a great feature. The rooms were furnished with a built-in wardrobe, bed and a fixed desk by the window. The corridors are located on the opposite west side. This high block is crowned by a concrete structure, that was used as an awning on the roof terrace. This spa houses differed from others in this town, that all water therapies were organised outside the house. The only treatment available to patients was sun and sand bathing on the roof terrace. Sand bathing is considered as a type of heat therapy.
The west facade is fronted by a staircase and a three-storey building. It once served as a dining room and another roof terrace. As tuberculosis was particularly widespread in the 1930s, open-air areas such as roof terraces were very popular for the so-called air cure.
A ramp leads to this area, which made it possible for people with disabilities to reach the inside of the building already at the time of its construction. The lifts in the building completed the inclusion. However, people probably needed help cleaning their bodies.
Many features, like pillars, terraces, ribbon windows and ramps are pure elements of modern architecture, that were formulated by Le Corbusier.
Description
A magnificent building that looks different from every side, following the different functions inside. The long side of the building with its many small balconies faces the park to the east. Those balconies are often compared with Walter Gropius's balconies in Dessau. The rooms of the sanatorium were located in this part of the building. In keeping with a stay at a health resort, you can imagine that people got up early. The rising sun helped them to get up. The folding windows, which allow the window area to be fully opened, are a great feature. The rooms were furnished with a built-in wardrobe, bed and a fixed desk by the window. The corridors are located on the opposite west side. This high block is crowned by a concrete structure, that was used as an awning on the roof terrace. This spa houses differed from others in this town, that all water therapies were organised outside the house. The only treatment available to patients was sun and sand bathing on the roof terrace. Sand bathing is considered as a type of heat therapy.
The west facade is fronted by a staircase and a three-storey building. It once served as a dining room and another roof terrace. As tuberculosis was particularly widespread in the 1930s, open-air areas such as roof terraces were very popular for the so-called air cure.
A ramp leads to this area, which made it possible for people with disabilities to reach the inside of the building already at the time of its construction. The lifts in the building completed the inclusion. However, people probably needed help cleaning their bodies.
Many features, like pillars, terraces, ribbon windows and ramps are pure elements of modern architecture, that were formulated by Le Corbusier.
History
There is so much to tell about this building.
The insurance company from Prague had this sanatorium built. Czech investors and interests in building a spa centre for Czech employees in this Slovakian health resort of Trenčianske Teplice were apparently strong. It is said that the building bore the name of the insurance company. Unfortunately, however, we do not know exactly what it was called. Nemocenská pokladna...? That is why we are using the later name by which the house is known today. Machnáč might be translated Large moss house. Also a mountain west of Trenčín at Slovak-Czech boarder is called Machnáč.\. The river Teplička flows through this valley nearby, what might be the resean for this name.
The plans date from 1929, construction began in 1930 and the opening took place in 1932. Originally, a different shape and location in the spa park was planned.
For Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia, one of the most impressive buildings of early modernism was created. And probably also one of the most expensive. We still don't know exactly why. In 1969, the house was already registered as a cultural monument, and in 1996 it was even categorised as a national cultural monument in Slovakia.
It is therefore all the more astonishing that the building has been empty and derelict since 2001. Over the years, the building has not been sealed off in such a way that at least as little damage as possible has been done to it and the last remaining fixtures and fittings have not been destroyed. The entire building is used by people as a toilet.
The Jaromír Krejcar Society (Spoločnosť Jaromíra Krejcara) has been trying to save the building since 2020. In 2021, a process began to expropriate the building from its current owners and hand it over to the state. Even the monument protection authorities and the Ministry of Culture backed this demand. There had never been such a lawsuit in Slovakia before. In the end, the District Office in Trenčín decided in September 2023 that Machnáč would unfortunately not change hands.
Like a small miracle, the society has managed to reconstruct one room.
The house, built as a spa centre in the spa town, would not only delight architecture fans to be reconstructed. It would also be able to serve spa guests again or have another useful purpose.
History
There is so much to tell about this building.
The insurance company from Prague had this sanatorium built. Czech investors and interests in building a spa centre for Czech employees in this Slovakian health resort of Trenčianske Teplice were apparently strong. It is said that the building bore the name of the insurance company. Unfortunately, however, we do not know exactly what it was called. Nemocenská pokladna...? That is why we are using the later name by which the house is known today. Machnáč might be translated Large moss house. Also a mountain west of Trenčín at Slovak-Czech boarder is called Machnáč.\. The river Teplička flows through this valley nearby, what might be the resean for this name.
The plans date from 1929, construction began in 1930 and the opening took place in 1932. Originally, a different shape and location in the spa park was planned.
For Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia, one of the most impressive buildings of early modernism was created. And probably also one of the most expensive. We still don't know exactly why. In 1969, the house was already registered as a cultural monument, and in 1996 it was even categorised as a national cultural monument in Slovakia.
It is therefore all the more astonishing that the building has been empty and derelict since 2001. Over the years, the building has not been sealed off in such a way that at least as little damage as possible has been done to it and the last remaining fixtures and fittings have not been destroyed. The entire building is used by people as a toilet.
The Jaromír Krejcar Society (Spoločnosť Jaromíra Krejcara) has been trying to save the building since 2020. In 2021, a process began to expropriate the building from its current owners and hand it over to the state. Even the monument protection authorities and the Ministry of Culture backed this demand. There had never been such a lawsuit in Slovakia before. In the end, the District Office in Trenčín decided in September 2023 that Machnáč would unfortunately not change hands.
Like a small miracle, the society has managed to reconstruct one room.
The house, built as a spa centre in the spa town, would not only delight architecture fans to be reconstructed. It would also be able to serve spa guests again or have another useful purpose.
Sources
Sources
