Zlínský kraj, Czech Republic — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Zlínský kraj known for?

Zlínský kraj is built from parts of Haná, the Moravian Slovakia, and the Moravian Wallachia, three traditional regions whose tripoint falls close to the city of Zlín itself. Slovakia lies along the eastern edge. With the Olomouc Region it forms the cohesion area of Central Moravia, and the South Moravian Region and the Moravian-Silesian Region close it in on the other sides.

Where is Zlínský kraj?

Zlínský kraj lies in the south-eastern part of the historical region of Moravia, with the border with Slovakia forming its eastern edge. Neighbours take the other three sides. The South Moravian Region lies to the south-west, the Olomouc Region to the north-west, and the Moravian-Silesian Region to the north, so the kraj is enclosed by Moravian ground on every side but the Slovak one.

Zlín stands at the centre of the arrangement, the capital the region is named after. Three older lands divide the ground. Parts of Haná, the Moravian Slovakia, and the Moravian Wallachia all fall inside the kraj, and Zlín sits roughly at their tripoint, which is why the region reads as three traditions held inside one boundary.

The kraj also belongs to a larger grouping. Together with the Olomouc Region it forms the cohesion area of Central Moravia, a pairing that puts the two neighbouring krajs into one planning unit. It is a compact region.

Nothing inside Zlínský kraj is far from anything else, and a traveller can pass from the Slovak border to the Olomouc side without giving up most of a day to it.

What is Zlínský kraj like?

Three traditions share one kraj. Haná, the Moravian Slovakia, and the Moravian Wallachia are each older than any administrative region, and Zlínský kraj holds a piece of all three, so the customs and the speech of its villages shift as a traveller crosses it. Zlín sits at their tripoint.

The capital lies roughly at the point the three regions reach, which gives the city a mixed inheritance rather than a single one, and gives the kraj its name at the same time. Slovakia is next door. The eastern edge of Zlínský kraj is an international boundary, and the name of the Moravian Slovakia points plainly at the country lying across it.

Central Moravia is the wider frame. Zlínský kraj and the Olomouc Region form that cohesion area together, so the region's cultural life runs west into Moravia as readily as it runs east to the border. Haná is the third of them.

The three do not blend into one another, and a kraj holding parts of all of them reads as several places at once rather than as a single one, which is what makes travelling across it worthwhile.

What is the history of Zlínský kraj?

The kraj dates from 2000. Zlínský kraj was created then as an administrative unit of the Czech Republic and took its name from Zlín, the city at its head. The lands inside it are far older.

Haná, the Moravian Slovakia, and the Moravian Wallachia were recognised as distinct parts of Moravia long before any modern boundary cut across them, and the kraj inherited pieces of all three.

What is the climate of Zlínský kraj?

Moravia's continental pattern governs the kraj. Winters run cold and summers warm across the south-eastern part of Moravia, and the seasons turn the same way on either side of the border with Slovakia that closes the kraj to the east. Zlín sits in the middle of it.

No coast reaches anywhere near, so the four seasons come with the plain separation of inland country, and the difference between the Haná side and the Moravian Wallachia is one of degree rather than kind. Snow is a normal part of winter.

How do you get to Zlínský kraj?

Zlín is where the roads converge. Arrivals from inside the country come in through the Olomouc Region to the north-west or the South Moravian Region to the south-west, and the Moravian-Silesian Region opens the northern approach. Slovakia is reached across the eastern edge, where the international border runs the length of the kraj's outer side.

Zlínský kraj is small enough to cross quickly.