"The Czech Republic’s second city " a Brno Travel Page by PeterVancouver

The Czech Republic’s second city has a striking cathedral, a palace and monasteries to attest to the fact that it was once a power base of the Habsburg Empire. Nowadays the concentration of students, and the resultant nightlife and pubbing scenes, let you know that Brno is the country’s biggest university town. A thriving cultural scene and nightlife nearly as varied as Prague’s add up to an engaging but laid-back city without the capital’s pretensions.


Spiked by towering medieval spires and surrounded by the flat rural countryside of the region of Moravia, Brno offers a compact dose of baroque façades, atmospheric cobbled streets, crypts and outdoor markets. Festivals and a new wave of clubs add the requisite Slavic hedonism. It feels distinct from Prague, though; it is several notches friendlier and more approachable than the capital.

Having originated as a ford across the Svratka river in around 1100 (the city’s name is derived from the old Slavonic word for mud), Brno parlayed its location on important trade routes into becoming the capital of the Great Moravian Empire, before being annexed by Bohemia. The transfer thoroughly catholicised the city, something unique in the heretical Czech lands.

Rising above the old centre of town is the vertiginous Petrov cathedral (Biskupská and Petrská, 543 235 030). Though its minimal interiors are a bit disappointing, it balances atop a suitably dramatic hill in defiance of doubters. Its noon bells sound at 11am, a tradition said to date from the Swedish siege of Brno, when the town was supposedly saved by an ingenious monk who knew that the attackers had decided to fight only until noon, and then up sticks and move on.

The Capuchin Crypt (Kapucínské náműstí, 542 213 232), just below Petrov and adjoining the former coal market, features a pleasingly gruesome taste of the hereafter, with its collection of mummified nobles and monks, many still in their original garb. If one-upping is called for, the 13th-century fortress nearby, on a hill even higher than Petrov’s, won’t disappoint; ·pilberk Castle (·pilberk 1, 542 214 145, www.spilberk.cz), across Husova from the old centre, features the kasematy, a grim labyrinth of dank dungeons where Emperor Joseph II had prisoners suspended on the dripping walls.

The produce market on Zelne trh, and half a dozen impressively ornate baroque churches, are within strolling distance of the main square, náműstí Svobody. Alas, the fabled Dragon of Brno, a sight that almost every tourist sees, is a disappointment – it’s actually just an overstuffed crocodile hung up outside the tourist office. It is said to have been the gift of a Turkish sultan, who exaggerated its status somewhat, hence the name.

• Tourist information: Radnická 8 (542 211 090, www.brno.cz).