Unlike the aforementioned houses, the building has no separated ground winepress room, but only a cellar accessible through a link called šíja (neck). It belongs to the younger vintners´ buildings in Vrbice, which are dominating here today. They are related to the expansion of smaller winegrowing farms whose production was aimed at the private need, not at the sale. The modern tools – spindle wine press, crushing machine, filters etc. – allowed the production to be concentrated in a small cellar space. The recessed underground winepress rooms were annexed only later. Besides the production, the important social events took place here – they contributed to typical decoration and furnishing of the rooms.
Seven storeys of the cellars in Stráž
The large complex of wine cellars with recessed winepress rooms in the locality called Stráž is an indisputable sight in Vrbice. The soft and well-formable rock allowed the underground driving and the extracted material to be used for the construction of the cellar frontage and the winepress house. The beginnings of these cellars fall within the fi rst decades of the 20th century. The number of these buildings increased especially after the war. The cellar frontage has a stable constructional composition designed by the Malina brothers who constructed the most cellars. The remarkable Gothic arch above the central entrance and both side windows point to the inspiration by the Pseudo-Gothic chapel in the village square.
Nowadays, here are seven storeys of cellars and each storey has its name: V jezírku (In the lake), Pod kostelem (Beneath the church), Pod novýma (Below the new cellars), Podkova (Horseshoe) etc. Here are two hundred cellars creating a unique complex and a landscape composition that shall be entered on the National Cultural Monuments List.
