WHERE TO GO IN BRNO

Historic sights

Špilberk castle
This castle has been the dominant feature of the city of Brno for more than seven hundred years. In the past it provided protection and a feeling of safety to the city. The castle was founded in the mid 13th century on a small but quite steep hill rising directly over the historic centre of the city.

Saint Peter and Paul’s Cathedral
The hill with Saint Peter and Paul’s Cathedral is situated in the place of the supposed site of the original Brno castle with a castle chapel from the 11th and 12th century. After it had ceased to exist, the separate Roman basilica was rebuilt into a Gothic cathedral in the 13th century, further altered in the 15th and 16th centuries and rebuilt in the Baroque style in the 18th century. The current Neo-Gothic reconstruction is from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Capuchin Crypt
An attractive place for tourists is a crypt in the underground area of the church of the Capuchin Monastery. A unique system of air circulation enabled the preservation of mummified remains of the members of the Capuchin Order, patrons and other important persons who had been buried there starting from the late 17th century.

Tugendhat Villa
A gem of Brno modernism and an important work of the world functionalistic architecture is the Tugendhat villa from the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built between 1929-1930. Since 2001 it has been included in the UNESCO world heritage list.

Zelný trh square (Vegetable market) – geographic centre of Europe
There you can admire a Baroque fountain “Parnas” made in 1695 by the Viennese architect Jan Demard Fisher from Erlach.

Náměstí Svobody square
It is one of the most outstanding squares in the historic part of Brno. In the past it used to be called “Dolní rynek” and in the Middle Ages it was surrounded by houses of important Brno citizens and Moravian noblemen who built town houses there for the days they spent in Brno.

Old town hall
The oldest secular building in Brno which was the seat of the town administration until 1935.

Jewish cemetery
The cemetery was founded in 1852, extended in 1911 and 1936. On the authentic graves, there are tombstones mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Augustinian Monastery and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Basilica
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Basilica in Old Brno is rightfully called a gem of Gothic architecture in Moravia. The Gothic Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church stands out compared to the other structural sights of its time not only due to the complicated and in our country unique ground plan layout but also a construction technology unusual in our country, which is architecture from carcass/non-plastered brickwork where an occasional hewn stone is used.

Mahen Theatre
Mahen Theatre was designed by the Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner (1848-1916) and Hermann Hellner (1849-1919) between 1881 – 1882. It is situated on the site of the former town fortification walls. The theatre started its operation on November 14, 1882 and its interesting features included Edison’s electric lighting.

Janáček Theatre
The building of Janáček Theatre was built between 1960-1965. It is a seat of the opera and ballet ensemble, the auditorium seats 1,380 people, the stage and lighting technology was supplied by the leading companies in this field.

Brno surroundings

Protected landscape area of Moravian Karst
Moravian Karst is one of the most important karst areas in Central Europe. In the whole area there are more than 1,100 caves, four of which are open for the public. Punkva Cave with possibility of boat trips on the underground river of Punkva connected with viewing of the bottom of Macocha Abyss, Kateřinská Cave which is famous for its unique stick stalagmites, Balcarka Cave with its rich and colourful dripstones and Sloupsko-šošůvské Caves comprising of huge corridors and underground abysses.

Pálava
Pavlovské hills, surrounded by fertile vineyards on all sides, is one of the most famous and visited parts of the Czech Republic thanks to its white limestone rocks, blooming irises on the sunlit rock steppes, oak groves, Gothic castle ruins, unique architecture of the historic town of Mikulov and wine cellars in the nearby villages.

Lednice-Valtice grounds
The grounds comprise of a large area of open countryside with forests and lakes, meadows and fields which are intercut by roads converging in a radial way towards Lednice. Shining silhouettes of gradually renovated manors and churches add a unique charm to this work of man and nature. This fascinating area in the surroundings of Lednice Castle, the beauty and unique nature of which we are still discovering, has been undergoing a recent revival.

Austerlitz – Battle of Three Emperors
If you set off eastwards out of the city, you can visit a Baroque castle of French style with preserved interiors in Austerlitz. In the nearby Memorial of Peace and Museum you can learn everything about the battle of three emperors.

Veveří Castle
One of the largest Moravian castle grounds situated on a promontory above the confluence of the Svratka river and Veverka stream was built probably as early as the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries as a hunting castle of Moravian margraves. As one of the most important castles and later the centre of a large aristocratic territory Veveří Castle often wrote the history of the region and the whole country.