After Prague, Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic. 400,000 people live within its territory, and it is recognized as the biggest and most populated metropolis in one of the economically and culturally most important parts of the Czech Republic - wine-producing South Moravia.
The world has known Brno for almost 70 years as a place of lively, widely visited, and commercially successful expositions and fairs organized at
the Brno Trade Fair grounds, which is, according to professionals, one of the most beautiful European trade fair grounds.
World famous
composer Leos Janacek worked in Brno, as did genius inventor Prof. Ing. Viktor Kaplan, the inventor of the water-turbine.
Brno, with its nearly one-thousand year history, offers a whole range of knowledge. Spilberk Castle, which wrote itself not only into the history of the town, but the whole of Europe. It was established by the Czech king, Premysl Otakar II. to protect the royal city of Brno, but in the seventeenth century it became an important fortress and, shortly after, a prison for the nations of the Habsburg Central-European monarchy.
Petrov Hill competes with Spilberk in the silhouette of Brno. Unique to the cathedral atop Petrov is that when viewed from the outside it will appear Gothic, but upon entering you will be showered with Baroque beauty Brno has many Baroque temples, while only a single church in Old Brno's Mendel square remains as a Gothic temple established in 1323. At the head of its monastery was the previously mentioned
Johann Gregor Mendel.
Also of interest is that Brno holds two town halls, the Old and the New. The Old Town Hall was created at the end of the 13
th century, extending into the 14
th century, from a fortified noble house with a tower, and became literally the heart of the entire town. The
New Town Hall originated from a Dominican Monastery built in the 1680's.
In the centre of the city, underneath Petrov and Spilberg, renaissance houses and palaces as well as interesting churches still stand. One of the most beautiful renaissance monuments is the house of lords of Lipe, the Ditrichstein palace is another architectural jewel, as well as the house of the Lords of Kunstat and the old gothic town hall, where the Brno Dragon hangs in the throughway.
Brno is residence of the State philmaronic orchestra Brno, famous Janacek (string) quartet,
the Moravian Land museum with dependent Memorial of Leos Janacek, Etnographic museum, Mendelianum (museum of Gregor Mendel) and Pavilion Anthropos (exhibition of prehistory of mankind). Other museums and galleries are Museum of City of Brno, Museum of technology, Museum of culture of Romanies (gypsies), Cabinet of veterinary medicine, Tiflopaedy Museum and Moravian gallery. There are ten theatres of various sizes and repertoire in Brno. The mathematician Kurt Godel, the botanist Gregor Mendel, the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach represent great numbers of outstanding scientists whose lives and work were closely linked with Brno.
The surrounding regions of Brno offer refreshment and recreation. Not far from the Brno dam is
the famous Masaryk circuit which is used every year to determine the quality of motorcycle racers from around the world.
Brno is a metropolis of South Moravia, and some sights of this interesting region are literally within arms reach of the city. There is the famous
Slavkov battlefield with a monumental memorial where, in 1805, the emperor Napoleon I fought one of his most successful battles. There also is Moravian Karst with the Macocha Abyss, and majestic stalactite caves.
Today Brno is a traditional, industrial, commercial, and cultural center; a place where Western, Central, and Eastern Europe meet.
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