The Miners’ Rehabilitation Institute in Bojnice Spa was built as part of the spa investment programme managed directly by Slovakoterma, the General Directorate of the Czechoslovak State Spas and Mineral Springs. The institute was originally intended for the rehabilitation and treatment of miners from nearby Prievidza and the surrounding region.
Within the setting of the existing spa complex, the architect Ivan Matušík created a rationally planned building of exceptional artistic and compositional quality. He employed a modernist design principle in which the lower podium is separated from the upper volume by a recessed intermediate floor. This arrangement reflects the logical functional organisation of the building. As in his earlier works, Matušík remained faithful to simple geometric forms.
The podium accommodates the entrance areas, dining facilities, and the various balneotherapy departments, all arranged around a central circular atrium. The different parts of the plan are interconnected by corridors laid out in concentric circles. The upper volume contains four storeys of twin-bed patient rooms, providing accommodation for a total of 200 patients. For the ward block, Matušík adopted a circular form with a segment removed, giving the building a resemblance to the Slimák Department Store in Bratislava. The omitted northern section allows daylight to reach the internal circular corridor while also ensuring that the patient rooms are favourably orientated towards the east, south, and west.
The successful realisation of this clear architectural concept depended on close collaboration with the structural engineer Pavel Čížek. He devised an innovative structural system combining steel columns with monolithic flat reinforced-concrete slabs. The most distinctive feature of the façades is the series of prefabricated loggia balustrades with their concave curved profile. These concrete loggias were complemented by a Copilit glass cladding enclosing the corridor facing the atrium, which harmonised with the dark ceramic finishes used on the podium and the end walls. During a later refurbishment, the Copilit glazing was replaced with conventional glazed openings. The original monolithic entrance canopy was also removed, and an outdoor swimming pool was added to the complex.
The building still retains the artworks that were conceived as an integral part of its architecture: the granite flower sculpture by Juraj Hovorka at the main entrance and the ceramic sculpture by Jozef Sušienka in the internal atrium.
The Rehabilitation Institute was designed to sit sensitively within the landscape beneath Bojnice Castle. Today, however, this careful integration into the natural setting has been compromised by the construction of a new treatment facility immediately adjacent to the building.
author of the description: Monika Bočková
Bibliography:
JANKOVICH, Imrich: Banícky rehabilitačný ústav v Bojniciach. Projekt 17, 1975, 10, s. 14 – 17.
VÍTEK, Jaroslav: Banícky rehabilitačný ústav v kúpeľoch Bojnice. Československý architekt 21, 1975, 14, s. 3.
VASKA, Vladimír: Bergbau-Rehabilitationszentrum Bad Bojnice. Deutsche Bauzeitschrift 25, 1977, 10, s. 1289 – 1290.
KULTERMANN, Udo: Zeitgenossische Architektur in Osteuropa. Köln Du Mont Buchverlag 1985. 254 s.
KULTERMANN, Udo: Architecture in the 20th Century. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold 1993, 306 s., tu s. 221.
Ivan Matušík – architektonické dielo. Katalóg výstavy. Ed. Marián Zervan. Bratislava, SAS 1995. 36 s., tu s. 1 a 3.
DULLA, Matúš – MORAVČÍKOVÁ, Henrieta: Architektúra Slovenska v 20. storočí. Bratislava, Slovart 2002. 512 s., tu s. 211, 441.
Ivan Matušík/život s architektúrou. Monografia. Ed. Ivan Matušík, Marian Zervan. MONADA, s. r. o. 2003. 176 s.
KRIVOŠOVÁ, Jana - LUKÁČOVÁ, Elena: Premeny súčasnej architektúry Slovenska. Bratislava: Alfa, 1990, s. 129.
KUSÝ, Martin: Architektúra na Slovensku 1945 – 1975. Bratislava, Pallas 1976. s. 182-184.
Projekt 1979, 21(5), s. 4 – 5.
