Staré Město: Great Moravian History, KOVOZOO and the Baťa Canal

Špitálky in Staré Město is a national cultural monument with the foundations of a Great Moravian church and traces of earlier settlement. The foundations of the Great Moravian church at Na Špitálkách were discovered in 1949. Excavations at Špitálky also uncovered a cemetery with 42 richly furnished graves.

The Church of St. Michael stands on the site of a 9th-century rotunda and includes the former ossuary chapel of St. John the Baptist. Inside, visitors can see the remains of the former rotunda beneath an illuminated glass panel. The Church of the Holy Spirit has a rotunda-shaped floor plan symbolizing a Great Moravian church, as well as a glass-clad nave. The vestibule of the Church of the Holy Spirit is open to visitors daily during the daytime, but it cannot be visited during services.

KOVOZOO is an attraction featuring metal animals on the reconstructed grounds of a former sugar factory in Staré Město. In addition to the metal animals, it displays industrial, firefighting and agricultural machinery. The complex includes the Veteran Museum, a permanent indoor exhibition of historic automobiles and motorcycles that opened in 2019. Around six dozen vehicles manufactured from the beginning of the 20th century through the 1970s are on display there.

The Museum of Blacksmithing is open daily and accessible to all KOVOZOO visitors. Blacksmithing courses are held in the hands-on forge, where visitors can experience the craft of blacksmithing in practice. Admission to the Veteran Museum is included in the KOVOZOO admission price; the same applies to the Maják Šrotík observation tower.

The KOVOZOO terrarium was moved to larger premises in Staré Město in March 2024. It features pythons, venomous snakes, a caiman, desert and rainforest lizards, monitor lizards, poison dart frogs, turtles, spiders and scorpions. For schools and groups, the terrarium offers guided tours with commentary and the possibility of individual customization.

More local pages: Nedakonice, Kunovice, Veletiny, Bojkovice, Komňa, Ostrožská Lhota, Sušice and Bílovice.

The marked asphalt cycle path along the Baťa Canal and the Morava River runs through Staré Město and is suitable for road bikes. Hamboot in Staré Město rents motorboats and canoes for trips on the Baťa Canal and the Morava River. Hamboot also offers houseboats for longer stays on the Baťa Canal and in its surroundings.

The Staré Město landing stage is accessed from the road bridge; behind the premises of the nearby car dealership there is a boat slipway. Different modes of transport—from the marked cycle path to travel on the water—thus stand side by side as clearly separate options within the townscape.

Širůch outdoor swimming pool has a 50-metre outdoor swimming pool with a slide, a children’s paddling pool, a beach volleyball court, table tennis and a children’s playground. MOTOKÁRY Staré Město is an outdoor go-kart track on the edge of the REC-Group complex. It offers two-seater karts, children’s karts, EASY mini-karts with 50 cc engines and karts specially adapted for people with disabilities. No driving licence is required to drive a kart at MOTOKÁRY Staré Město.

Človíčkova stezka is a sports museum with an outdoor wooden playground in Rybníček Staré Město Sports Park. The trail combines the history of sport with physical activity and child-friendly learning.

For the broader travel overview: Uherské Hradiště District.