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Brno ( , ; ) is a
city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
in the
South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region (; , ; ), or just South Moravia, is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia. The region's capital is Brno, th ...
of the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic after the capital,
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, and one of the 100 largest cities of the European Union. The
Brno metropolitan area The Brno metropolitan area () is the metropolitan area of the city of Brno in the Czech Republic. The metropolitan area has a population of 729,405 as of 2024. The metropolitan area is the third most populous urban area in the country. Covering a ...
has approximately 730,000 inhabitants. Brno is the former capital city of
Moravia Moravia ( ; ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The medieval and early ...
and the political and cultural hub of the South Moravian Region. It is the centre of the Czech judiciary, with the seats of the
Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...
, the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
, the
Supreme Administrative Court A supreme administrative court is the highest court in a country with jurisdiction over lower administrative courts and the administrative decisions of the authorities, but not the legislative decisions (laws) made by the government (which are unde ...
, and the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, and a number of state authorities, including the
Ombudsman An ombudsman ( , also ) is a government employee who investigates and tries to resolve complaints, usually through recommendations (binding or not) or mediation. They are usually appointed by the government or by parliament (often with a sign ...
, and the Office for the Protection of Competition. Brno is also an important centre of higher education, with 33 faculties belonging to 13 
institutes of higher education An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...
and about 62,000 students.
Brno Exhibition Centre Brno Exhibition Center () is a convention centre based in Brno, Czech Republic. It was established in 1928. The centre occupies a site on and provides a total net exhibition area of including open-air space and exhibition halls with an exhibit ...
is among the largest exhibition centres in Europe. The complex opened in 1928 and established the tradition of large exhibitions and
trade fair A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific Industry (economics), industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest Product (business), products and se ...
s held in Brno. Brno hosts motorbike and other races on the
Masaryk Circuit The Masaryk circuit () or Masarykring, also referred to as the Brno Circuit, refers to two motorsport race tracks located in Brno, Czech Republic. The original street circuit was made up of public roads, and at its longest measured . The track ...
, a tradition established in 1930, of which the
Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...
is one of the most prestigious races. Another cultural tradition is an international fireworks competition, '' Ignis Brunensis'', which attracts tens of thousands of visitors to each display. The most visited sights of the city include the
Špilberk Castle Špilberk Castle (; , locally ''Špilas'') is a castle on the hilltop in Brno, Southern Moravia. Its construction began as early as the first half of the 13th century by the Přemyslid kings and completed by King Ottokar II of Bohemia.Ehrenberger ...
and fortress and the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul on Petrov hill, two medieval buildings that dominate the cityscape and are often depicted as its traditional symbols. The other large preserved castle near the city is
Veveří Castle Veveří (, ) is an originally ducal and royal castle in Brno in the Czech Republic. It is located about northwest of Brno city centre on the Svratka River. History 11th to 15th centuries According to legend, the castle Veveří (literal ...
by
Brno Reservoir The Brno Reservoir, previously known as the Kníničky Reservoir (, also known as ''Prýgl'' in Hantec slang) is a reservoir on the Svratka River at the northwest edge of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. The construction of a dam on the 56th ki ...
. Another architectural monument of Brno is the functionalist
Villa Tugendhat Villa Tugendhat () is an architecturally significant building in Brno, Czech Republic. It is one of the pioneering prototypes of modern architecture in Europe, and was designed by the German architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. ...
, which was added to the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
list of
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
s in 2001. One of the natural sights nearby is the
Moravian Karst The Moravian Karst () is a karst landscape and protected landscape area to the north of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It encompasses a number of notable geological features, including roughly 1100 caverns and gorges an ...
. The city is a member of the
UNESCO Creative Cities Network The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) is a flagship city programme of UNESCO launched in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities which have recognized culture and creativity as strategic drivers of sustainable urban development Urban means ...
and was designated a " City of Music" in 2017.


Administrative division

Brno consists of 29 self-governing districts and 48 municipal parts, whose borders respect the boundaries of the districts. The districts of Brno are: *
Brno-Bohunice Brno-Bohunice is a city district of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. It is made up of the cadastral territory of Bohunice. It is located in the southwest part of the city. It is first mentioned in 1237. It began growing rapidl ...
*
Brno-Bosonohy Brno-Bosonohy is a city district in the southwest of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Bosonohy () and a small part of neighbouring Kohoutovice. Bosonohy was originally an independent mun ...
*
Brno-Bystrc Bystrc ( Hantec: Bástr) is a city district of Brno in the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the sou ...
*
Brno-Černovice Brno-Černovice () is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the southeastern part of the city. It is coextensive with the municipal part and cadastral territory of Černovice, which used to be an independent municipality until it was ...
*
Brno-Chrlice Brno-Chrlice is a city district in the south part of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Chrlice (), originally an independent municipality that was annexed to Brno in 1971. The current cit ...
*
Brno-Ivanovice Brno-Ivanovice is a city district in the north part of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Ivanovice (), originally an independent municipality that was annexed to Brno in 1971. The city di ...
*
Brno-Jehnice Brno-Jehnice is a city district of Brno in the Czech Republic. It is made up of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Jehnice, originally an independent municipality that became a part of Brno in 1971. Its cadastral territory has an area ...
*
Brno-jih Brno-jih (lit. 'Brno-South') is a city district of Brno in the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to th ...
*
Brno-Jundrov Brno-Jundrov is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the western part of the city. It consists of most of the cadastral territory of Jundrov and a small northwestern part of the cadastral territory of Pisárky. The administrative di ...
*
Brno-Kníničky Brno-Kníničky is a city district on the northwestern edge of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Kníničky (), originally a municipality that was annexed into Brno in 1960. Its covers an ...
*
Brno-Kohoutovice Brno-Kohoutovice is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the western part of the city. It consists of almost the entire cadastral territory of Kohoutovice, the western part of Pisárky and a small southern part of Jundrov. The to ...
*
Brno-Komín Brno-Komín is a city district in Brno, Czech Republic, in the northwestern part of the city. It consists of the cadastral territory of Komín (), originally an independent municipality that was annexed to Brno in 1919. Its cadastral territory has ...
*
Brno-Královo Pole Brno-Královo Pole (, lit. 'Brno-King's Field') is a city district of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europ ...
*
Brno-Líšeň Brno-Líšeň is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, in the northeastern part of the city. It consists of the cadastral territory of Líšeň (), originally a town that was annexed to Brno in 1944. The cadastral territory has an area of 15.71 ...
*
Brno-Maloměřice and Obřany Brno-Maloměřice and Obřany () is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the northeastern part of the city. It consists of the cadastral territory of Obřany and most of the cadastral territory of Maloměřice. The total cadastral ar ...
*
Brno-Medlánky Brno-Medlánky is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, on the northern edge of the city. It consists of the district and cadastral territory of Medlánky (), originally an independent municipality that was annexed to Brno in 1919. Its cadastral ...
*
Brno-Nový Lískovec Brno-Nový Lískovec is one of the 29 city districts of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the southwestern part of the city. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Nový Lískovec (, lit. 'New Lískovec'), along with a small un ...
*
Brno-Ořešín Brno-Ořešín is a city district on the northern edge of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Ořešín, originally a municipality, which was annexed into Brno in 1971. It has an area of 3.06 km2 ...
*
Brno-Řečkovice a Mokrá Hora Brno-Řečkovice a Mokrá Hora is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the northern part of the city. It is made up of the cadastral territories of Řečkovice and Mokrá Hora. It has a total area of 7.57 km2. The city district was ...
*
Brno-sever Brno-sever (lit. 'Brno-North') is one of the 29 city districts of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the north side of the city. It is made up of the municipal parts and cadastral territories of Husovice, Lesná and Soběšice and parts of Čern ...
*
Brno-Slatina Slatina is a city district of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. It is located in the eastern part of the city and is somewhat separated from other parts. Slatina became a part of Brno in 1919 and as of 2021, it has 11,104 inhabi ...
*
Brno-střed Brno-střed (lit. 'Brno-Center') is one of the 29 city districts of Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic. It consists of the cadastral territories of Brno-město (the historic center of the city), Staré Brno, Stránice, Štýřice ...
*
Brno-Starý Lískovec Brno-Starý Lískovec is a city district of Brno, Czech Republic, located on the southwestern edge of the city. It consists of most of the cadastral territory of Starý Lískovec (, lit. 'Old Lískovec'), which has all of the city district's popula ...
*
Brno-Tuřany Brno-Tuřany is a city district in Brno, Czech Republic, located in the southeastern part of the city. It is made up of the cadastral territories of Brněnské Ivanovice, Dvorska, Holásky and Tuřany. The total area is 17.84 km². The city distr ...
*
Brno-Útěchov Brno-Útěchov is a city district on the northern edge of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Útěchov (Útěchov u Brna), originally a municipality which was the last to be annexed into B ...
*
Brno-Vinohrady Brno-Vinohrady ( Hantec: Vincky) is a city district on the eastern side of Brno in the Czech Republic. The city district was established on 24 November 1990. The population is 12,172 as of 2021. Characteristic The vast majority of Vinohrady is m ...
*
Brno-Žabovřesky Brno-Žabovřesky (,) is a city district of the city of Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (rive ...
*
Brno-Žebětín Brno-Žebětín is a city district in Brno, Czech Republic, located on the western edge of the city. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Žebětín (), originally an independent municipality that was annexed to Brno in 197 ...
*
Brno-Židenice Brno-Židenice is a city district in Brno, Czech Republic, located east of the city's Brno-město (cadastral territory), historical center. It consists of the eastern part of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Zábrdovice and most of Ži ...


Names

The
etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...
of the name ''Brno'' is disputed. It might be derived from the
Old Czech The Czech language developed at the close of the 1st millennium from common West Slavic languages, West Slavic. Until the early 20th century, it was known as ''Bohemian''. Early West Slavic Among the innovations in common West Slavic languag ...
' 'muddy, swampy.' Alternative derivations are a
Slavic Slavic, Slav or Slavonic may refer to: Peoples * Slavic peoples, an ethno-linguistic group living in Europe and Asia ** East Slavic peoples, eastern group of Slavic peoples ** South Slavic peoples, southern group of Slavic peoples ** West Slav ...
verb ''brniti'' (to armour or to fortify) or a
Celtic language The Celtic languages ( ) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, descended from the hypothetical Proto-Celtic language. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward Lhuyd in 1707, following Paul-Yves ...
spoken in the area before it was inhabited by
Germanic peoples The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts of ...
and later
Slavic peoples The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, Southeast ...
. The latter theory would make it
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
with other Celtic words for hill, such as the
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...
word '. Throughout its history, Brno's locals also referred to the town in other languages, including ' in German, ברין (') in
Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
, and ' in
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
. The city was also referred to as Brunn () in English, but that usage is not common today. The asteroid 2889 Brno was named after the city, as was the
Bren light machine gun The Bren gun (Brno-Enfield) was a series of light machine guns (LMG) made by the United Kingdom in the 1930s and used in various roles until 1992. While best known for its role as the British and Commonwealth forces' primary infantry LMG in Worl ...
(from 'Brno' and ' Enfield'), which was widely used in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.


History

The Brno basin has been inhabited since
prehistoric times Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins  million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...
, as seen in a 2024 discovery of at least three mammoths bones and prehistoric tools dating back 15,000 years. The town's direct predecessor was a fortified settlement of the
Great Moravian Empire Great Moravia (; , ''Meghálī Moravía''; ; ; , ), or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly West Slavic to emerge in the area of Central Europe, possibly including territories which are today part of the Czech Repub ...
known as ''Staré Zámky'', which was inhabited from the
Neolithic Age The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wid ...
until the early 11th century. In the early 11th century Brno was established as a castle of a non-ruling prince from the
House of Přemyslid A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
, and Brno became one of the centres of Moravia along with
Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...
and
Znojmo Znojmo (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian Region. The hi ...
. Brno was first mentioned in Cosmas' ''
Chronica Boemorum The ''Chronica Boemorum'' (Chronicle of the Czechs, or Bohemians) is the first Latin chronicle in which the history of the Czech lands has been consistently and relatively fully described. It was written in 1119–1125 by Cosmas of Prague. The ...
'' dated to the year 1091, when Bohemian king Vratislaus II besieged his brother
Conrad Conrad may refer to: People * Conrad (name) * Saint Conrad (disambiguation) Places United States * Conrad, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Conrad, Iowa, a city * Conrad, Montana, a city * Conrad Glacier, Washington Elsewher ...
at Brno castle. In the mid-11th century, Moravia was divided into three separate territories; each had its own ruler, coming from the Přemyslids dynasty, but independent of the other two, and subordinate only to the
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
n ruler in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
. The seats of these rulers and thus the "capitals" of these territories were the castles and towns of Brno,
Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...
, and
Znojmo Znojmo (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 34,000 inhabitants. Znojmo is the historical and cultural centre of southwestern Moravia and the second most populated town in the South Moravian Region. The hi ...
. In the late 12th century, Moravia began to reunify, forming the
Margraviate of Moravia The Margraviate of Moravia (; ) was one of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown within the Holy Roman Empire and then Austria-Hungary, existing from 1182 to 1918. It was officially administered by a margrave in cooperation with a provincial diet. I ...
. From then until the middle of the 17th century, it was not clear which town should be the capital of Moravia. Political power was divided between Brno and Olomouc, but Znojmo also played an important role. The Moravian Diet, the Moravian Land Tables, and the Moravian Land Court were all seated in both cities at once. However, Brno was the official seat of the Moravian Margraves (rulers of Moravia), and later its geographical position closer to
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
also became important. Otherwise, until 1642 Olomouc had a larger population than Brno, and was the seat of the only
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...
in Moravia. In 1243, the small settlements grouped together to form one fortified settlement, and Brno was granted city royal privileges by the King, and thus recognized as a royal city. As throughout Eastern Central Europe, the granting of city privileges was connected with immigration from German-speaking lands. In 1324, Queen
Elisabeth Richeza of Poland Elizabeth Richeza of Poland (; ; 1 September 1288 – 19 October 1335), was a Polish princess member of the House of Piast and by her two marriages Queen consort of Bohemia and Poland and Duchess consort of Austria and Styria. She was the on ...
founded the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, which now houses her grave. In the 14th century, Brno became one of the centres for the Moravian regional assemblies, whose meetings alternated between Brno and Olomouc. These assemblies made political, legal, and financial decisions. Brno and Olomouc were also the seats of the Land Court and the Moravian Land Tables, thus they were the two most important cities in Moravia. From the mid-14th century to the early 15th century, Špilberk Castle had served as the permanent seat of the Margraves of Moravia; one of them,
Jobst of Moravia Jobst of Moravia ( or ''Jošt Lucemburský''; or ''Jodokus von Mähren''; – 18 January 1411), a member of the House of Luxembourg, was Margrave of Moravia from 1375, Duke of Luxembourg and Elector of Brandenburg from 1388 as well as elected K ...
, was elected the
King of the Romans King of the Romans (; ) was the title used by the king of East Francia following his election by the princes from the reign of Henry II (1002–1024) onward. The title originally referred to any German king between his election and coronatio ...
. Brno was besieged in 1428 and again in 1430 by the
Hussite file:Hussitenkriege.tif, upright=1.2, Battle between Hussites (left) and Crusades#Campaigns against heretics and schismatics, Catholic crusaders in the 15th century file:The Bohemian Realm during the Hussite Wars.png, upright=1.2, The Lands of the ...
s during the
Hussite Wars The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, a ...
. Both attempts to conquer the city failed.


17th century

In 1641, during the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...
, the Holy Roman Emperor and Margrave of Moravia Ferdinand III ordered the permanent relocation of the diet, court, and the land tables from Olomouc to Brno, as Olomouc's
Collegium Nordicum A (: ) or college was any association in ancient Rome that acted as a legal entity. Such associations could be civil or religious. The word literally means "society", from ("colleague"). They functioned as social clubs or religious collectiv ...
made it one of the primary targets of Swedish armies. In 1642 Olomouc surrendered to the
Swedish Army The Swedish Army () is the army, land force of the Swedish Armed Forces of the Kingdom of Sweden. Beginning with its service in 1521, the Swedish Army has been active for more than 500 years. History Svea Life Guards dates back to the year 1 ...
, which occupied it for eight years. Meanwhile, Brno, as the only Moravian city which, under the leadership of
Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches (16 August 1608 to 12 August 1682), was a French-born professional soldier, who served in the Swedish and Imperial armies. A capable officer who reached the rank of Field Marshal, his career was marred by a tendenc ...
, succeeded in defending itself from the Swedes under General
Lennart Torstenson Lennart Torstensson (17 August 1603 – 7 April 1651), Swedish List of Swedish field marshals, Field Marshal and later Governor-General of Pomerania, Västergötland, Dalsland, Värmland and Halland. He adapted the use of artillery on the battlef ...
during the
siege of Brno The siege of Brno, which occurred from 3 May 3 to 23 August 1645, was the second Swedish siege of the city of Brno in the last years of the Thirty Years' War. The Brno garrison, consisting of 500 soldiers and about 1,000 Brno residents, succe ...
in 1645, served as the sole capital of the Margraviate of Moravia. After the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, Brno retained its status as the sole capital. This was later confirmed by the Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor F ...
in 1782, and again in 1849 by the Moravian constitution. Today, the Moravian Land Tables are stored in the Moravian Regional Archive, and are included among the national cultural sights of the Czech Republic. During the 17th century
Špilberk Castle Špilberk Castle (; , locally ''Špilas'') is a castle on the hilltop in Brno, Southern Moravia. Its construction began as early as the first half of the 13th century by the Přemyslid kings and completed by King Ottokar II of Bohemia.Ehrenberger ...
was rebuilt as a huge baroque
citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...
. Brno was besieged by the Prussian Army in 1742 under the leadership of
Frederick the Great Frederick II (; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was the monarch of Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786. He was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled ''King in Prussia'', declaring himself ''King of Prussia'' after annexing Royal Prussia ...
, but the siege was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1777 the bishopric of Brno was established by the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
;
Mathias Franz Graf von Chorinsky Freiherr von Ledske Mathias Franz Graf von Chorinsky Freiherr von LedskeÖsterreichische Staatsarchiv (ÖStA) (Austrian State Archives (ÖStA)); Allgemeines Adelsarchiv der österreichischen Monarchie (General Archive of Nobility of the Austrian Monarchy), Author: K ...
was the first Bishop.


19th century

In December 1805, the
Battle of Austerlitz The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV French Republican calendar, FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near t ...
was fought near the city; the battle is also known as the "Battle of the Three Emperors". Brno itself was not involved in the battle, but the French Emperor
Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
spent several nights here at that time, and again in 1809. In 1839, the first train arrived in Brno from Vienna via the
Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway The Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (; ; ) was a railway company during the time of the Austrian Empire. Its main line was intended to connect Vienna with the salt mines in Bochnia near Kraków. The name is still used today in referring to a ...
. This was the beginning of rail transport in the current Czech Republic and
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. Between 1859 and 1864, the city fortifications were almost completely removed. In 1869, a
horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public transport, public rail transport, ...
service started to operate in Brno, the first
tram service A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
in what would later become the Czech Republic.
Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...
conducted his groundbreaking experiments in
genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...
while he was a monk at St. Thomas's Abbey in Brno in the 1850s.


20th century and Greater Brno

Around 1900 Brno, which consisted in administrative terms only of the central city area until 1918, had a predominantly German-speaking population (63%), as opposed to the suburbs, which were predominantly Czech-speaking. Life in the city was therefore bilingual, and what was called in German was a mixed idiom containing elements from both languages. In 1919, after
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, two neighbouring towns, Královo Pole and Husovice, and 21 other municipalities were annexed to Brno, creating Greater Brno (). This was done to dilute the German-speaking majority of close to 55,000 by the addition of the Czech communities of the city's neighborhood. Included in the German-speaking group were almost all of the 12,000 Jewish inhabitants, including several of the city's better known personalities, who made a substantial contribution to the city's cultural life.Eva Hahn, Hans Henning Hahn: ''Die Vertreibung im deutschen Erinnern. Legenden, Mythos, Geschichte.'' Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, , p. 370. Greater Brno was almost seven times larger, with a population of about 222,000 – before that Brno had about 130,000 inhabitants. In 1921–1928, Brno was the capital of the administrative region of Land of Moravia (Czech: ''Země Moravská''). In 1928–1948, Brno was the capital of the Land of Moravia-Silesia (Czech: ''Země Moravskoslezská''). In 1930, 200,000 inhabitants declared themselves to be of Czech, and some 52,000 of German nationality, in both cases including the respective Jewish citizens. During the German occupation of the Czech lands between 1939 and 1945, all Czech universities were closed by the Nazis, including those in Brno. The
Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...
became the headquarters of the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
, and the university hall of residence was used as a prison. About 35,000 Czechs and some American and British
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
were imprisoned and tortured there; about 800 civilians were executed or died. Executions were public. The Nazis also operated a
subcamp Subcamps were outlying detention centres (''Haftstätten'') that came under the command of a main Nazi concentration camps, concentration camp run by the SS in Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. The Nazis distinguished between the List of N ...
of the
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
, which held mostly Polish prisoners, an internment camp for
Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...
in the city, and a
forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...
"education" camp in the present-day district of Dvorska. Between 1941 and 1942,
transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...
s from Brno deported 10,081 Jews to Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp. At least another 960 people, mostly of
mixed race The term multiracial people refers to people who are mixed with two or more races and the term multi-ethnic people refers to people who are of more than one ethnicities. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mul ...
, followed in 1943 and 1944. After Terezín, many of them were sent to
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
,
Minsk Ghetto The Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the Operation Barbarossa, German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Byelorussian SSR, and the largest in the German-occupied Europe, Germa ...
, Rejowiec and other
ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...
s and
concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...
s. Although Terezín was not an
extermination camp Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe, primarily in occupied Poland, during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocau ...
, 995 people transported from Brno died there. Only 1,033 people returned after the war. Industrial facilities such as the Československá zbrojovka arms factory and the Zweigwerk
aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Aircraft using power components are referred to as powered flight. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbin ...
factory (which became Zbrojovka's subsidiary
Zetor Zetor (since January 1, 2007, officially Zetor Tractors a.s.) is a Czech agricultural machinery manufacturer. It was founded in 1946. The company is based in Brno, Czech Republic. Since June 29, 2002, the only shareholder has been a Slovak com ...
after the war) and the city centre were targeted by several Allied
bombardment A bombardment is an attack by artillery fire or by dropping bombs from aircraft on fortifications, combatants, or cities and buildings. Prior to World War I, the term was only applied to the bombardment of defenseless or undefended obje ...
campaigns between 1944 and 1945. The air strikes and later artillery fire killed some 1,200 people and destroyed 1,278 buildings. After the city's occupation by the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
on 26 April 1945 and the end of the
war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...
, ethnic German residents were expelled. In the
Brno death march The Brno death marchRozumět dějinám, Zdeněk Beneš, p. 208 () began late on the night of 30 May 1945 when the ethnic German minority in Brno ( ) was forcibly deported to nearby Austria following the capture of the city by the Allies during Wo ...
, beginning on 31 May 1945, about 27,000 German inhabitants of Brno were marched to the Austrian border. According to testimony collected by German sources, about 5,200 of them died during the march. Later estimates by Czech sources put the death toll at about 1,700, with most deaths due to an epidemic of
shigellosis Shigellosis, known historically as dysentery, is an infection of the intestines caused by ''Shigella'' bacteria. Symptoms generally start one to two days after exposure and include diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and feeling the need to pass ...
. After the reestablishment of an independent Czechoslovak state after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, President
Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1939 to 1948. During the first six years of his second stint, he led the Czec ...
delivered a speech in Brno demanding the
expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia The expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II was part of a broader series of Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), evacuations and deportations of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe during and after World War II. ...
. Shortly afterwards, 20,000 ethnic Germans from the city were expelled into
Allied-occupied Austria Austria was occupied by the Allies of World War II, Allies and declared independence from Nazi Germany on 27 April 1945 (confirmed by the Berlin Declaration (1945), Berlin Declaration for Germany on 5 June 1945), as a result of the Vienna offen ...
. After the
1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état In late February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), with Soviet backing, assumed undisputed control over the government of Czechoslovakia through a coup d'état. It marked the beginning of four decades of the party's rule in t ...
, the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, (Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak: ''Československá socialistická republika'', ČSSR) known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic (''Československá republika)'', Fourth Czecho ...
abolished Moravian autonomy and Brno thus ceased to be the capital of Moravia. Since then Moravia has been divided into administrative regions, with Brno the administrative centre of the
South Moravian Region The South Moravian Region (; , ; ), or just South Moravia, is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia. The region's capital is Brno, th ...
. In 1960s and 1970s, large panel
housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...
s were built in border districts, such as Bohunice, Líšeň, Bystrc and Vinohrady. During the communist era, most of the workforce was employed in industry, mainly machinery. After 1989, part of the workforce switched from industry to services, and Brno became the IT centre of the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, new industrial zones were built at the edge of the city, such as Černovická terasa in the east of the city.


Geography

Brno is located in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic, at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, and there are also several brooks flowing through it, including the Veverka, Ponávka, and Říčka. The Svratka River flows through the city for about , and the Svitava River cuts a path through the city. Brno is situated at the crossroads of ancient trade routes which have joined northern and southern European civilizations for centuries, and is a part of the
Danube basin The Danube ( ; see also other names) is the second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest south into the Black Sea. A large and historically important riv ...
region. The city is historically connected with Vienna, which lies to the south. Brno is across, measured from east to west, and its total area is . Within the city limits are the
Brno Reservoir The Brno Reservoir, previously known as the Kníničky Reservoir (, also known as ''Prýgl'' in Hantec slang) is a reservoir on the Svratka River at the northwest edge of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. The construction of a dam on the 56th ki ...
, several ponds, and other standing bodies of water, such as the
reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
s in the Marian Valley and the Žebětín Pond. Brno is surrounded by wooded hills on three sides; about of the area of the city is forest, 28% of the total. Due to its location between the
Bohemian-Moravian Highlands The Bohemian-Moravian Highlands (, colloquially ''Vysočina''; ) is a geomorphological macroregion and highland in the Czech Republic. Its highest peaks are the Javořice at and Devět skal in the north (). The Bohemian-Moravian Heights were p ...
and the Southern Moravian lowlands (Dyje-Svratka Vale), Brno has a moderate climate. Compared to other cities in the country, Brno has a very high air quality, which is ensured by a good natural circulation of air; no severe storms or similar natural disasters have ever been recorded in the city.


Climate

Under the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
, Brno has an
oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(''Cfb'') for −3 °C original isoterm, but near of the (−2.5 °C average temperature in January, month most cold) or include by updated classification in
humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...
(''Dfb'') with cold winters and warm to hot summers. However, in the last 20 years the temperature has increased, and summer days with temperature above are quite common. The average temperature is , the average annual precipitation is about , the average number of precipitation days is 150, the average annual sunshine is 1,771 hours, and the prevailing wind direction is northwest. The weather box below shows average data between 1961 and 1990. Its elevation above sea level varies from to . The highest peak in the municipal area is the Kopeček Hill (), and the highest point overall lies in Útěchov on the border with the municipality of
Vranov Vranov may refer to places: Czech Republic *Vranov (Benešov District), a municipality and village in the Central Bohemian Region *Vranov (Brno-Country District), a municipality and village in the South Moravian Region *Vranov (Tachov District), a ...
.


Cityscape


Administration

Legally, Brno is a
statutory city Statutory city may refer to: * Statutory city (Austria), an Austrian municipality acting as a district administrative authority * Statutory city (Czech Republic), a Czech city with special privileges * Statutory city (United States), a city in the ...
, consisting of 29 administrative divisions known as city districts. The highest body of self-government is the Brno City Assembly. The city is headed by the
lord mayor Lord mayor is a title of a mayor of what is usually a major city in a Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. However, the title or an equivalent is present in other countries, including forms such as "high mayor". A ...
, who has the right to use the mayor's insignia and represents the city externally. As of 2021, the lord mayor is Markéta Vaňková of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). The executive body is the city council and local councils of the city districts; the city council has 11 members including the lord mayor and her four deputies. The assembly of the city elects the lord mayor and other members of the city council, establishes the local police, and is also entitled to grant citizenship of honour and the Awards of the City of Brno. The head of the Assembly of the City of Brno in personal matters is the Chief Executive, who according to certain special regulations carries out the function of employer of the other members of the city management. The Chief Executive is directly responsible to the Lord Mayor. The city itself forms a separate district, the
Brno-City District Brno-City District () is a district in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. The district is coterminous with the city of Brno. Geography Brno-City District has a hilly and forested character in the northwestern part and flat and defore ...
, surrounded by the
Brno-Country District Brno-Country District () is a Okres, district in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Its capital is the city of Brno. The most populated town of the district is Kuřim. The district is made up of 187 municipalities, which is the highes ...
. Brno is divided into 29 administrative divisions (city districts) and consists of 48 cadastral areas. The "Brno-City District" and "Brno-Country District" are not to be confused with the "city districts" of Brno. The city districts of Brno vary widely in their size by both population and area. The most populated city district of Brno is Brno-Centre, which has over 91,000 residents, and the least populated are
Brno-Ořešín Brno-Ořešín is a city district on the northern edge of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Ořešín, originally a municipality, which was annexed into Brno in 1971. It has an area of 3.06 km2 ...
and
Brno-Útěchov Brno-Útěchov is a city district on the northern edge of the city of Brno, Czech Republic. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Útěchov (Útěchov u Brna), originally a municipality which was the last to be annexed into B ...
, with about 500 residents. By area, the largest district is
Brno-Bystrc Bystrc ( Hantec: Bástr) is a city district of Brno in the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the sou ...
() and the smallest is
Brno-Nový Lískovec Brno-Nový Lískovec is one of the 29 city districts of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the southwestern part of the city. It consists of the municipal part and cadastral territory of Nový Lískovec (, lit. 'New Lískovec'), along with a small un ...
(). Brno is the home to the highest courts in the Czech judiciary. The
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
is on Burešova Street, the
Supreme Administrative Court A supreme administrative court is the highest court in a country with jurisdiction over lower administrative courts and the administrative decisions of the authorities, but not the legislative decisions (laws) made by the government (which are unde ...
is on Moravské náměstí (), the
Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...
is on Joštova Street, and the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office of the Czech Republic is on Jezuitská street.


Demographics

According to the 2021 census, Brno had 398,510 inhabitants. The largest ethnic groups reported (without options to choose between) were
Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...
(51.6%),
Moravians Moravians ( or Colloquialism, colloquially , outdated ) are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who speak the Moravian dialects of Czech language, Czech or Czech language#Common Czech, Common ...
(18.7%),
Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...
(1.5%),
Ukrainians Ukrainians (, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. Their native tongue is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, and the majority adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, forming the List of contemporary eth ...
(0.9%),
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
(0.4%), and
Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...
(0.2%). 23.7% of inhabitants did not write any nationality. In the 2001 census, when the most common nationalities were list to choose between, 76.1% were Czechs and 18.7% Moravians (94.8% Czechs in the broader sense). Brno experienced its largest increases in population during the 19th century at the time of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
, and in 1919 due to a merger with surrounding municipalities.


Economy

Since 1990, many companies created or spun off as part of privatization from former national enterprises have disappeared. Before 1990, engineering companies were very important in Brno; since then, the city's economy has largely reoriented itself towards light industry, logistics, and services. The city later gained importance in other fields of
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
, especially in
software development Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...
. After 2000, foreign technology companies began establishing their branches in Brno, and many Czech companies with local or global reach were also founded here. Companies operating in Brno include
Gen Digital Gen Digital Inc. (formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock Inc.) is a multinational software company co-headquartered in both Prague, Czech Republic (European Union, EU) and Tempe, Arizona (United States, USA). The company provides comp ...
(one of the headquarters, brand
AVG Technologies AVG Technologies B.V. is a brand of cybersecurity, privacy, performance and utility software applications for desktop computers and mobile devices developed by Avast, a part of Gen Digital. AVG was a cybersecurity software company founded in 199 ...
still used), Kyndryl (Client Innovation Centre),
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
,
Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automa ...
(Global Design Center),
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
,
Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...
(Czech headquarters), an office of
Zebra Technologies Zebra Technologies Corporation is an American mobile computing company specializing in technology used to sense, analyze, and act in real time. The company manufactures and sells marking, tracking, and computer printing technologies. Its produc ...
, and formerly
Silicon Graphics International Silicon Graphics International Corp. (SGI; formerly Rackable Systems, Inc.) was an American manufacturer of computer hardware and software, including high-performance computing systems, x86-based servers for datacenter deployment, and visuali ...
(Czech headquarters). In recent years, the quaternary sector of the economy, i.e., activities in science, research, and education, has also begun to develop in Brno. Examples include AdMaS (Advanced Materials, Structures, and Technologies) or CETOCOEN (Center for Research on Toxic Substances in the Environment). The city cultivates this sector via supporting organisations such as the South Moravian Innovation Centre and the VUT Technology Incubator.


Transport

Public transport in Brno consists of 12
tram A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
lines, 14
trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
lines (the largest trolleybus network in the Czech Republic) and almost 40 day and 11 night bus lines. Trams (known locally as ''šaliny'') first appeared on the streets in 1869; this was the first operation of
horse-drawn tram A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, which developed ou ...
s in the modern-day Czech Republic. The local public transport system is interconnected with regional public transport in one integrated system (IDS JMK), and directly connects several nearby municipalities with the city. Its main operator is the Brno City Transport Company (DPmB), which also operates a mostly recreational ferry route at the Brno Dam Lake. A tourist
minibus A minibus, microbus, or minicoach is a passenger-carrying motor vehicle that is designed to carry more people than a multi-purpose vehicle or minivan, but fewer people than a full-size bus. In the United Kingdom, the word "minibus" is us ...
provides a brief tour of the city. Railway transport began operating in the city in 1839 on the Brno–Vienna line, the first operating railway line in the modern-day Czech Republic. Today, Brno is a transnational railway hub, with nine stations for passenger traffic. The current
main railway station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...
is the central hub of regional train services, used by about 50,000 passengers every day, with around 500 trains passing through. The station is operating at full capacity; the main station building is outdated and lacks sufficient operating capacity, but the construction of the new station has been postponed several times for various reasons. A
referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
over whether to move the station was held on 7 and 8 October 2016, coinciding with regional elections. Brno is also an international road transport crossroads. There are two
motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...
s on the southern edge of the city: the D1 leading to
Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...
and
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
, and the D2 leading to
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
. Not far from the city limits is the D52 motorway leading to
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. Another planned motorway, the D43, will connect Brno to northwestern Moravia. The city is gradually building the large city
ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...
(road I/42). Several road tunnels have been built at Pisarky, Husovice, Hlinky, and Královo pole, and more are planned. Due to the congestion in private transport, the city is continuing to try to build more parking ramps, including underground, but these efforts have not always been successful. Air transport is enabled by two functional airports. The public international airport,
Brno-Tuřany Airport Brno-Tuřany Airport is an airport in Brno, Czech Republic. It serves mainly the southeastern part of the Czech Republic. In 2024, 749,153 passengers passed through the Brno-Tuřany passenger terminal, making it the second busiest airport in t ...
, saw a sharp increase in passenger traffic up to 2011, however the number of passengers declined in the following years, especially during the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. The airport also serves as one of the two bases for police helicopters in the Czech Republic. The other airport, Medlánky Airport, is a small domestic airport serving mainly recreational activities such as flying
hot air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carri ...
s, gliders or aircraft RC models. Cycling is widespread in Brno due to the lowland nature of the landscape. Existing tracks for cycling and roller skating in 2011 totalled approximately , and are gradually being expanded. There is also one long bikeway leading to
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, approximately long. Several hiking trails of the Czech Tourist Club also pass through Brno.


Culture

The city spends about 30 million euro every year on culture. A vibrant university city with about 60,000 students, Brno is home to many museums, theatres and other cultural institutions, and also hosts a number of festivals and other cultural events. Since the 1990s Brno has experienced a great cultural "rebirth": façades of historical monuments are being repaired and various exhibitions, shows, etc., are being established or extended. In 2007 a summit of 15 presidents of EU Member States was held in Brno. Despite its urban character, some of the city districts still preserve traditional Moravian folklore, including folk festivals with traditional Moravian costumes, Moravian wines, folk music and dances. Unlike smaller municipalities, in Brno annual traditional Moravian folk festivals are held in several city districts, including
Židenice Židenice (, Hantec slang, Hantec: ''Šimice'') is a municipal part and cadastral territory in Brno, Czech Republic, almost entirely located on the left bank of the river Svitava (river), Svitava. It has an area of 6.47 km2. Originally an inde ...
, Líšeň, and Ivanovice. Hantec is a unique
slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...
that originated in Brno.


Festivals

The biggest festival in Brno is the
fireworks Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...
competition festival, Ignis Brunensis (Latin for "Flame of Brno"), held annually in June, part of the "Brno – City in the Centre of Europe" festival. Ignis Brunensis is the biggest show of its kind in Central Europe, usually attracting 100,000–200,000 visitors to each display. The international film festival '' Cinema Mundi'' screens about 60 films competing for
Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...
nomination in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. ''Theatre World Brno'' is another international festival held annually in the city, in which Brno theatres and the city centre stage around 100 performances by national and foreign ensembles. Other festivals held regularly in Brno include the International Music Festival Brno, the Spilberk International Music Festival, and the Summer Shakespeare Festival. Every September, Brno hosts a wine festival, ''Slavnosti vína'', to celebrate the harvest in the surrounding wine-producing region.


Theatres

Brno has a long theatre tradition. Brno has the oldest theatre building in Central Europe, the
Reduta Theatre The Reduta Theatre () is a theatre in Brno, Czech Republic. It was built on the city's oldest square ( Zelný trh) and began its life in Renaissance times as the Taverna (Tavern) Theatre. In 1767, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed with his siste ...
on Zelný trh. The first theatre plays in Brno probably took place in the 1660s in the ''City Tavern'', today's Reduta Theatre; however, the first theatre with boxes was built in this complex in 1733. The first documented professional Czech performance took place in 1767, again in the Reduta Theatre; the play was called ''Zamilovaný ponocný'' () and was performed by the Venice Theatre Company. The same year,
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
performed in the theatre with his elder sister Anna Maria (Nannerl). In that year the Mozart family spent Christmas in Brno, and their visit is commemorated by a statue of Mozart as a child in front of the Reduta Theatre. The theatre's ''Mozart Hall'' was also named after him. The National Theatre of Brno is the leading producer of
opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
,
drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
, and
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
in the city of Brno. The first permanent seat of NdB was established in 1884, and today this institution owns the
Mahen Theatre Mahen Theatre () is a Czech theatre situated in the city of Brno. Mahen Theatre, built as German ''Deutsches Stadttheater'' in 1882, was one of the first public buildings in the world lit entirely by electric light. Ort (2007), p. 82 It was built ...
, built in 1882, Janáček Theatre, built in 1965, and the
Reduta Theatre The Reduta Theatre () is a theatre in Brno, Czech Republic. It was built on the city's oldest square ( Zelný trh) and began its life in Renaissance times as the Taverna (Tavern) Theatre. In 1767, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed with his siste ...
. The composer
Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...
is also connected with the National Theatre of Brno. The Mahen Theatre was the first theatre building in Europe to be illuminated by
Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...
's electric light bulbs; at that time it was a completely new invention and there were no power plants built in the city, so a small steam power plant was built nearby just to power the theatre, and Edison came to Brno in 1911 to see it. The most commercially successful theatre in Brno is the
Brno City Theatre Brno City Theatre (Czech: Městské divadlo Brno; MdB) is a repertoire theatre in Brno, Czech Republic, that focuses on dramatic and music production, mainly musical theatre. The building of the theatre is located on Lidická street in town squar ...
, founded in 1945; its performances are usually sold out. They also stage about 150 performances abroad every year. The theatre's repertoire consists primarily of musical and dramatic shows. There are a variety of smaller theatres in Brno, including the
Bolek Polivka Bolek (died 1819), also spelled as Boleck or Bolechs, and known as Bowlegs by European Americans, was a Seminole principal chief, of the Alachua ( Oconee) chiefly line. He was the younger brother of King Payne, who succeeded their father Cowke ...
Theatre, the Goose on a String Theatre ("Divadlo Husa na provázku"), HaDivadlo, Radost Puppet Theatre ("loutkové divadlo Radost"), and Polárka Theatre. The Mahen Theatre was originally called the City Theatre, and until 1918 it performed exclusively in German and was not part of the National Theatre of Brno. Between 1971 and 1978, some plays were performed at the
Brno Exhibition Centre Brno Exhibition Center () is a convention centre based in Brno, Czech Republic. It was established in 1928. The centre occupies a site on and provides a total net exhibition area of including open-air space and exhibition halls with an exhibit ...
due to reconstruction of the Mahen Theatre.


Local legends

There are several legends connected with the City of Brno. One of the best known is the Legend of the Brno Dragon. According to this legend, a terrible creature was terrorizing the citizens of Brno. The people had never seen this animal before, so they called it a dragon. They lived in fear of the dragon until one citizen managed to kill the monster by tricking it into eating a carcass filled with lime. In reality the "dragon" was a crocodile, the preserved body of which is now displayed at the entrance of the Old Town Hall. Crocodile and dragon motifs are common in Brno. A crocodile () is the local stuffed baguette, and the city radio station is known as Radio Krokodýl. One of the local
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
teams is named
Draci Brno Draci Brno (English: Brno Dragons) is a baseball team from Brno, Czech Republic. The team plays in the Czech Extraliga. History Draci Brno was founded as Slavia Brno VŠZ in 1972. In 1973, the team won the Czechoslovak amateur softball tournamen ...
() and the local rugby club is named
RC Dragon Brno RC Dragon Brno is a Czech Republic, Czech Rugby union, rugby club in Brno. They currently play in the Extraliga ragby XV. They have also been involved in the Central & Eastern European Rugby Cup since its inception in 2008. History The club star ...
. There is also a local
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
team called the Brno Alligators. An
Intercity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the train categories in Europe, classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to InterRegio, regional train, r ...
train connecting Brno and Prague is called ''Brněnský drak'' (). Next to the dragon at the Old Town Hall is the town's second well-known emblem, a wagon wheel made from a tree found and cut down 50 miles from the city. According to the legend, a local man made a wager that he could fell the tree, make a wheel out of it, and roll the wheel to the City of Brno, all within a single day. Since the achievement was deemed to be impossible by normal human means, the man was believed to have called on the devil for assistance, and died in poverty as a result. Another local legend relates to the siege of the city by Swedish forces in 1645. The locals and the Swedish army were in a stalemate, and the Swedish general declared that he would withdraw if his army had not won by noon. The bell ringer at Petrov Cathedral tricked him by ringing the bell an hour early, and keeping his word, the general and his army left. As a historic tribute to the event, the bell at Petrov Cathedral still rings for noon an hour earlier, at 11 o'clock. At this hour every day, the Brno astronomical clock also releases a glass ball as a souvenir.


Museums, libraries and galleries

The most significant museum in Brno is the Moravian Museum, the largest museum in Moravia and the second largest in the Czech Republic. The museum was founded in 1817 and its collections comprise over 6 million pieces. The biggest public library in Brno is the
Moravian Library Moravian Library (Czech: ''Moravská zemská knihovna'') is the second largest library in the Czech Republic. Located in Brno, Czech Republic, it is a universal research library and the regional library of the South Moravian Region The South Mo ...
, the second largest library in the Czech Republic with around 4 million volumes. The biggest gallery in Brno is the
Moravian Gallery The Moravian Gallery in Brno () is the second largest art museum in the Czech Republic, established in 1961 by the merging of two older institutions. It is in five buildings: Pražák Palace, Governor's Palace, Museum of Applied Arts, Jurkovič ...
, again the second largest institution of its kind in the Czech Republic and the biggest in Moravia. One section of the Moravian Museum, the Anthropos Pavilion, is related to the oldest history of mankind and prehistoric Europe. Brno also has a Technical Museum, the largest in Moravia and one of the largest in Czech Republic. The permanent exhibitions chart the advance of science and technology, accompanied by various lifelike models and restored machines. The museum also hosts short-term exhibitions of many different points of interest. In 2016 the Vašulka Kitchen Brno (VKB) was established in Brno for research, artistic experiment and informal education in the field of new media art. Housed in the Brno House of Arts, it consists of the archive of
Steina and Woody Vasulka Steina Vasulka (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir in 1940)
Soros Center for Contemporary Arts Budapest
and Woody Vasulka ...
’ work and presents a permanent exhibition of their selected works.


Education

In 2019, 62,000 students were enrolled in Brno's higher education institutions. The city is also home to a number of
research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...
institutions, including the
Central European Institute of Technology The Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) () is an educational and research institution in Brno, Czech Republic. It is a centre specialising in Life Sciences, life sciences, Materials science, advanced materials and nanotechnology re ...
(CEITEC), and the International Clinical Research Center (ICRC). With over 40,000 students,
Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) (; ) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno, it now consists of ten faculties and 35,115 students. It is named after To ...
is the largest university in Brno and the second biggest in the Czech Republic. It consists of nine faculties, with more than 190 departments, institutes, and clinics. The
Brno University of Technology Brno University of Technology (BUT; Czech: ''Vysoké učení technické v Brně'', VUT) is a university located in Brno, Czech Republic. Being founded in 1899 and initially offering a single course in civil engineering, it grew to become a maj ...
was established in 1899, and is now among the biggest technical universities in the Czech Republic with over 20,000 students. Viktor Kaplan, inventor of the
Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to a ...
, spent nearly 30 years at the
German Technical University in Brno German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
, which ceased to exist in 1945, its property transferred to Brno University of Technology.
Mendel University Mendel University in Brno () is located in Brno, Czech Republic. It was founded on 24 July 1919 on the basis of the former Tábor Academy. It now consists of five faculties and one institute - the Faculty of AgriSciences, Faculty of Forestry an ...
, named after the founder of genetics
Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...
, who developed his revolutionary scientific theories in Brno, has roughly 10,000 students. Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, named after
Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...
, was founded in 1947 and is one of two academies of music and drama in the Czech Republic. It holds the annual Leoš Janáček Competition.


Sport

The city has a long association with
motor racing An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gene ...
; among other events, the
Masaryk Circuit The Masaryk circuit () or Masarykring, also referred to as the Brno Circuit, refers to two motorsport race tracks located in Brno, Czech Republic. The original street circuit was made up of public roads, and at its longest measured . The track ...
has hosted the
Moto GP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...
championship since 1965. The annual
Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix The Czech Republic motorcycle Grand Prix is a motorcycling event that is part of the Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. Before 1993, the race was known as the Czechoslovak motorcycle Grand Prix. Since 1965, the race was a part of world Grand P ...
, the most famous motor race in the Czech Republic, has been held in the city since 1950. Since 1968, Brno has been a permanent fixture on the
European Touring Car Championship The European Touring Car Championship was an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It had two incarnations, the first one between 1963 and 1988, and the second between 2000 and 2004. In 2005 it was superseded by the World ...
(ETCC) series. Track and
road cycling Road cycling is the most widespread form of cycling in which cyclists ride on paved roadways. It includes recreational, racing, commuting, and utility cycling. As users of the road, road cyclists are generally expected to obey the same laws a ...
have a long history in Brno. The first track races took place here in 1889, and the
velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...
in Brno ranks among the oldest velodromes in the world. In 1969 Brno hosted the
UCI Track Cycling World Championships The UCI Track Cycling World Championships are the set of world championship events for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling. They are regulated by the Union Cycliste Internationale. Before 1900, they were administered by the UCI ...
and
UCI Road World Championships The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and , a UCI Road World Championships ...
for amateurs, in 1981 the UCI Track Cycling World Championships and in 2001 the UEC European Track Championships for the U23 category. There are two traditional cycling teams
TJ Favorit Brno
an
Dukla Brno
The
2010 FIBA World Championship for Women The 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women, the 16th edition of International Basketball Federation, FIBA's premier tournament for women's national basketball teams, was held from September 23 to October 3, 2010 in the Czech Republic. Three cities ...
was played in Brno's Arena Vodova, with the Czech squad taking the silver medal. There is a horse-race course at Brno-Dvorská and an aeroclub airport in Medlánky. Several sports clubs represent the city in the various Czech leagues, including
FC Zbrojovka Brno FC Zbrojovka Brno is a professional football club based in the city of Brno, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic and named after Zbrojovka Brno, a firearms manufacturer. Founded in 1913 as SK Židenice, the club later became known as Zbrojovk ...
(
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
),
HC Kometa Brno HC Kometa Brno ("Comet" in English) is a professional ice hockey team based in Brno, Czech Republic. They play in the Czech Extraliga. Kometa is the most successful ice hockey club in the Czech Republic with 14 Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League ...
(
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
),
KP Brno KP may refer to: Businesses and organizations * ''Komsomolskaya Pravda'', a daily Russian newspaper * ''KP'' (newspaper), a Ukrainian newspaper * KP Snacks, a United Kingdom food manufacturer * Kaiser Permanente, a U.S. health maintenance organi ...
(
handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...
),
BC Brno Basketball Club Brno (), for sponsorship reasons Brno Next Generation, is a Czech professional basketball club based in the city of Brno. The team plays in the Czech National Basketball League – the highest competition in the Czech Republic. H ...
(
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
, men) and
BK Brno Basketbalový Klub Brno, currently officially BK Žabiny Brno, previously also known as Imos Brno for sponsorship reasons, is a Czech professional women's basketball club from Brno established in 1993, not to be mistaken with male club BC VS Brno ...
(women), four
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
teams (
Draci Brno Draci Brno (English: Brno Dragons) is a baseball team from Brno, Czech Republic. The team plays in the Czech Extraliga. History Draci Brno was founded as Slavia Brno VŠZ in 1972. In 1973, the team won the Czechoslovak amateur softball tournamen ...
, Hroši Brno, VSK Technika Brno, MZLU Express Brno), Brno Ravens Lacrosse Club (
lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...
), Brno Alligators (
American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
), two
rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...
teams (
RC Dragon Brno RC Dragon Brno is a Czech Republic, Czech Rugby union, rugby club in Brno. They currently play in the Extraliga ragby XV. They have also been involved in the Central & Eastern European Rugby Cup since its inception in 2008. History The club star ...
, RC Bystrc) and others.
Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
players
Barbora Krejčíková Barbora Krejčíková (; born 18 December 1995) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles by the Wome ...
,
Lucie Šafářová Lucie Šafářová (; born 4 February 1987) is a Czech professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles. She is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles ...
,
Lukáš Rosol Lukáš Rosol (; born 24 July 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 26, achieved on 22 September 2014. His first notable victory was against world No. 8, Jürgen Melzer, at the 2011 Fre ...
, and
Jana Novotná Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in 1997, and as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for 67 weeks. ...
are from Brno, as well as
Michal Březina Michal Březina (; born 30 March 1990) is a retired Czech figure skater. He is the 2013 European bronze medalist, 2011 Skate America champion, 2009 World Junior silver medalist and four-time Czech national champion. He also won the 2014-15 IS ...
, one of the top Czech figure skaters.
Motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...
events were held at the Winter Stadium, off Na Rybníčku in Králové Pole. The venue hosted a final round of the Czechoslovak Individual Speedway Championship in 1949, 1950 and 1954.


Sights

Brno has hundreds of historical sights, including one designated a
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
, and eight monuments listed among the national cultural heritage of the Czech Republic. Most of the main sights of Brno are situated in the historical centre. The city has the third largest historic preservation zone in the Czech Republic, the largest one being in the Czech capital
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
. However, there is a considerable difference in the number of historical preservation zones of both cities. While Brno has 484 legally protected sites, Prague has as many as 1,330. Špilberk Castle, originally a royal castle founded in the 13th century, was from the 17th century a fortress and feared prison (e.g.
Carbonari The Carbonari () was an informal network of Secret society, secret revolutionary societies active in Italy from about 1800 to 1831. The Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in France, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Urugua ...
). Today it is one of the city's principal monuments. Another key landmark is the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, built during the 14th and 15th centuries in place of an 11th-century chapel. Its present form with two
neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...
towers was completed in 1909. The other large castle near the city is
Veveří Castle Veveří (, ) is an originally ducal and royal castle in Brno in the Czech Republic. It is located about northwest of Brno city centre on the Svratka River. History 11th to 15th centuries According to legend, the castle Veveří (literal ...
. The Abbey of Saint Thomas was the site of
Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...
's experiments establishing the new science of
genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinians, Augustinian ...
. The Church of Saint Tomas houses the tomb of its founder,
John Henry John Henry most commonly refers to: *John Henry (folklore) John Henry may also refer to: People Artists and entertainers * John Henry (actor) (1738–1794), Irish and early American actor *Seán Ó hEinirí (1915–1998), known in English as John ...
and his son
Jobst of Moravia Jobst of Moravia ( or ''Jošt Lucemburský''; or ''Jodokus von Mähren''; – 18 January 1411), a member of the House of Luxembourg, was Margrave of Moravia from 1375, Duke of Luxembourg and Elector of Brandenburg from 1388 as well as elected K ...
, Margraves of Moravia. The Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady houses the grave of its founder Queen Elisabeth Richeza. The Church of Saint James is one of the best preserved and most spectacular Gothic churches in Brno. Brno Ossuary is the second largest
ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...
in Europe, after the
Catacombs of Paris The Catacombs of Paris (, ) are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people. Built to consolidate Paris's ancient stone quarries, they extend south from the ("Gate of Hell") former city gate. ...
. Another ossuary is the
Capuchin crypt The Capuchin Crypt is a small space comprising several tiny chapels located beneath the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini on the Via Veneto near Piazza Barberini in Rome, Italy. It contains the skeletal remains of 3,700 bodi ...
, with
mummies A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...
of Capuchin monks and some of the notable people of their era, including architect Mořic Grimm and the mercenary leader
Baron Trenk Baron Franz von der Trenck ( German: ''Franz Freiherr von der Trenck'', Croatian: ''Barun Franjo Trenk'') ( Reggio di Calabria. January 1, 1711 – Brno. October 4, 1749) was an Austrian soldier whose unit is considered one of the worst in m ...
. The Labyrinth under Zelný trh, a system of underground corridors and cellars dating back to the Middle Ages, has been recently opened to the public. These cellars have been used mainly for storing food, maturing beer and wine, and as wartime shelters. Originally, they were not interconnected as they are now – this happened later during the reconstruction in 2009. Brno is home to a functionalist Synagogue and the largest
Jewish cemetery A Jewish cemetery ( ''beit almin'' or ''beit kvarot'') is a cemetery where Jews are buried in keeping with Halakha, Jewish tradition. Cemeteries are referred to in several different ways in Hebrew, including ''beit kevarot'' (house of s ...
in Moravia. A Jewish population lived in Brno as early as the 13th century, and remnants of tombstones can be traced back to as early as 1349. The functionalist synagogue was built between 1934 and 1936. While the Brno Jewish community numbered 12,000 in 1938, only 1,000 survived
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
persecution during Germany's occupation in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Today, the cemetery and synagogue are again maintained by a Brno Jewish community. The only Czech
mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...
, founded in 1998, is also located in Brno. The era between the world wars saw a building boom to the city, leaving it with many
modern Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...
and especially functionalist buildings, the most celebrated being
Villa Tugendhat Villa Tugendhat () is an architecturally significant building in Brno, Czech Republic. It is one of the pioneering prototypes of modern architecture in Europe, and was designed by the German architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. ...
, designed by architect
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...
in the 1920s for the wealthy family of Fritz Tugendhat, and finished in 1930. It was designated a
World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
in 2001. Another renowned architect who significantly shaped Brno was Arnošt Wiesner.Karrie Jacobs, ''Discovering Brno's architecture'', in ''Travel + Leisure'', November 2005
available online
/ref> Other functionalist buildings include the Avion Hotel and Morava Palace. The
Brno Exhibition Centre Brno Exhibition Center () is a convention centre based in Brno, Czech Republic. It was established in 1928. The centre occupies a site on and provides a total net exhibition area of including open-air space and exhibition halls with an exhibit ...
is the city's main attraction for international business visitors, visited by over one million visitors each year, and hosting over 40 professional trade fairs and business conferences.
Lužánky Lužánky (originally Augarten) is the largest city park in Brno and the oldest municipal park in the Czech Republic. The park is located in the Brno-střed District and covers an area of . History The oldest mention of Lužánky comes from the ...
is the oldest public park in the Czech Republic, established in the late 18th century by the emperor of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
. Denis Gardens were founded in the early 19th century and were the first public park in the present-day Czech Republic founded by public authorities. Špilberk Park is classified as a national cultural sight of the Czech Republic, as a unique piece of landscape architecture. One of Brno's more recent additions is the Brno astronomical clock. The
AZ Tower The AZ Tower is a skyscraper in the city of Brno, Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germ ...
, opened in 2013 and tall, is the tallest building in the Czech Republic.


Notable people

*
Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel Order of Saint Augustine, OSA (; ; ; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinians, Augustinian friar and abbot of St Thomas's Abbey, Brno, St. Thom ...
(1822–1884), scientist; lived and died here *
Ernst Mach Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( ; ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the understanding of the physics of shock waves. The ratio of the speed of a flow or object to that of ...
(1838–1916), physicist and philosopher *
Maria Neruda Anna Marie Rudolfina Neruda (also known as Maria Arlberg or Madame Arlberg-Neruda; 26 March 1840 – 7 November 1920) was a Czech-Swedish violinist. Biography Born in Brno, Moravia, then part of the Austrian Empire, Neruda came from a musical fam ...
(1840–1920), violinist *
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Eugen Ritter von Böhm-Bawerk (; born Eugen Böhm, 12 February 1851 – 27 August 1914) was an Austrian-school intellectual and political economist who served intermittently as the Minister of Finance of Austria between 1895 and 1904. Böhm-Ba ...
(1851–1914), economist *
Ludwig Strakosch Ludwig Strakosch (1 November 1855 – 14 October 1919) was an Austrian operatic baritone. Life Born in Brünn, Strakosch, son of a sugar manufacturer, first took singing lessons with Therese Stolz in Berlin and Louise Reß in Vienna. He then ma ...
(1855–1919), operatic baritone *
Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was inspired by modernism and a widely-known c ...
(1870–1933), architect *
Anca Seidlova Anca Seidlova Edwards (April 19, 1895 – March 8, 1982) was a Czech-American pianist. Early life and education Anca Seidlová was born in Brno, the daughter of Jaroslav Seidl. Her father was a lawyer. She studied with Leoš Janáček at a con ...
(1895–1982), pianist *
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (; May 29, 1897 – November 29, 1957) was an Austrian composer and conductor, who fled Europe in the mid-1930s and later adopted US nationality. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential comp ...
(1897–1957), composer and conductor * Ladislav Vácha (1899–1943), gymnast *
Hugo Haas Hugo Haas (19 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer. He appeared in more than 60 films from 1926 to 1962 and directed 20 films from 1933 to 1962. Life and career Haas was born in Brno, Austria-Hung ...
(1901–1968), actor and director * Jan Gajdoš (1903–1945), gymnast * Georg Placzek (1905–1955), physicist *
Kurt Gödel Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( ; ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel profoundly ...
(1906–1978), philosopher, mathematician and physicist *
Bohumil Hrabal Bohumil Hrabal (; 28 March 1914 – 3 February 1997) was a Czech Republic, Czech writer, often named among the best Czech writers of the 20th century. Early life Hrabal was born in Židenice (suburb of Brno) on 28 March 1914, in what was then ...
(1914–1997), author *
Vítězslava Kaprálová Vítězslava Kaprálová (; 24 January 191516 June 1940) was a Czech composer and conductor of 20th-century classical music. Life and career Vítězslava Kaprálová was born in Brno, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Czech Republic), a daughter ...
(1915–1940), composer and conductor *
Zvi Dershowitz Zvi Dershowitz (May 4, 1928 – March 26, 2023) was a Czech-born American rabbi whose tenure included 50 years serving Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Early life Dershowitz was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1928. In 1938, just 33 days before ...
(1928–2023), American rabbi *
Milan Kundera Milan Kundera ( ; ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship ...
(1929–2023), writer * Woody Vasulka (1937–2019), Czech-American artist * Rudolf Potsch (born 1937), ice hockey player *
Jiří Daler Jiří Daler (born 8 March 1940) is a retired cycle sport, cyclist from Czechoslovakia. His sporting career began with Dukla Brno. As an amateur track cyclist he competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics, 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics in five events ...
(born 1940), cyclist * Lubo Kristek (born 1943), artist *
Jiří Pospíšil Jiří Pospíšil (born 24 November 1975) is a Czech Republic, Czech politician, who was leader of TOP 09 from November 2017 until November 2019. As a deputy for the Civic Democratic Party (Czech Republic), Civic Democratic Party, Pospíšil se ...
(1950–2019), basketball player *
Jan Stejskal Jan Stejskal (born 15 January 1962) is a former Czech footballer and goalkeeper coach. In a 17-year playing career as a goalkeeper, he set a Czechoslovak First League record for clean sheets in a season, and spent four years in England at Queens ...
(born 1962), footballer *
Roman Kukleta Roman Kukleta (22 December 1964 – 26 October 2011) was a Czech footballer who played as a forward. He won three Czechoslovak First League titles with Sparta Prague between 1988 and 1991, during which time he also finished as top scorer of the ...
(1964–2011), footballer * Robert Kron (born 1967), ice hockey player *
Jana Novotná Jana Novotná (; 2 October 1968 – 19 November 2017) was a Czech professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) in 1997, and as the world No. 1 in women's doubles for 67 weeks. ...
(1968–2017), tennis player *
Jaromír Blažek Jaromír Blažek (; born 29 December 1972) is a Czech former professional football goalkeeper. Apart from one season in Germany, he has spent his entire professional career in the Czech Republic. Blažek has also been called up as a reserve goal ...
(born 1972), footballer *
Magdalena Kožená Magdalena Kožená, Lady Rattle (; born 26 May 1973) is a Czech mezzo-soprano. Early life Kožená was born in Brno in Czechoslovakia. Both her parents had come originally from Bohemia, to the west. She was born one of the two daughters of a ma ...
(born 1973), opera singer * Libor Zábranský (born 1973), ice hockey player and coach *
David Kostelecký David Kostelecký (; born May 12, 1975, in Brno, Czechoslovakia,) is a male Czech sports shooter. He won the gold medal in the Men's Trap event at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the silver medal in the same event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Sp ...
(born 1975), sports shooter *
Adam Svoboda Adam Svoboda (26 January 1978 – 7 May 2019) was a Czech ice hockey goaltender and coach. Club career Svoboda began his professional career with HC Sparta Praha, starting in 25 games for the club throughout the 1996-97 Czech Extraliga season. ...
(1978–2019), ice hockey player *
Miroslava Knapková Miroslava "Mirka" Topinková Knapková (, born 19 September 1980) is a Czech rower who won an Olympic gold medal in the single scull. Biography Knapková was born in 1980 in Brno in Czechoslovakia (since 1993 in the Czech Republic). Her fa ...
(born 1980), rower *
Jan Polák Jan Polák (; born 14 March 1981) is a retired Czech footballer who played as a midfielder. His professional career spanned 22 years, during which he also played abroad for football clubs in Germany and Belgium. Polák also represented the Cze ...
(born 1981), footballer *
Lucie Šafářová Lucie Šafářová (; born 4 February 1987) is a Czech professional tennis player who was ranked List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles, and No. 5 in singles. She is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles ...
(born 1987), tennis player * Tomáš Slavík (born 1987), mountain biker *
Karel Abraham Karel Abraham (born 2 January 1990) is a retired motorcycle racer from the Czech Republic. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from to , riding in the 125cc, 250cc, Moto2 and MotoGP classes, with the exception of 2016, when he raced in t ...
(born 1990), motorcycle racer *
Jiří Procházka Jiří Procházka (; ; born October 14, 1992) is a Czech professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Light Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion a ...
(born 1992), mixed martial artist; lives here *
Adam Ondra Adam Ondra (; born February 5, 1993) is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing. In 2013, ''Rock & Ice'' described Ondra as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation. Ondr ...
(born 1993), rock climber *
Nicole Melichar Nicole Melichar-Martinez (née Melichar; , ; born July 29, 1993) is an American professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. On 3 July 2023, she peaked at No. 6 in the WTA doubles rankings. Melichar has won fifteen doubles titles on the ...
(born 1993), American tennis player *
Barbora Krejčíková Barbora Krejčíková (; born 18 December 1995) is a Czech professional tennis player. She has been WTA rankings, ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and List of WTA number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles by the Wome ...
(born 1995), tennis player


International relations


Twin towns – sister cities

Brno is twinned with: *
Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...
, Slovakia *
Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
, United States *
Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...
, Hungary *
Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...
, Lithuania *
Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
, Ukraine *
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
, England, United Kingdom *
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, Germany *
Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...
, Ukraine *
Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...
, Poland *
Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...
, France *
Sankt Pölten Sankt Pölten (; Central Bavarian: ''St. Pödn''), mostly abbreviated to the official name St. Pölten, is the capital and largest city of the States of Austria, State of Lower Austria in northeast Austria, with 55,538 inhabitants as of 1 Januar ...
, Austria *
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
, Germany


Cooperation agreements

Brno also cooperates with: *
Daejeon Daejeon (; ) is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, fifth-largest metropolis, with a population of nearly 1.5 million. Located in a central lowland valley between the Sobaek Mountains and the Geum River, the city is known both as a ...
, South Korea *
Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...
, Netherlands *
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, Austria


Nearby cities

This tool shows only cities with population over 300,000 in radius of .


Gallery

Brno View from Spilberk 131.JPG, A view from Špilberk Castle Petrov from Hybešova 2.JPG, Petrov cathedral Brno - Náměstí Svobody I.jpg, Liberty Square; in the Middle Ages it was the main square. Brno - Biskupský dvůr I.jpg, The Bishop's Palace towards the Cathedral Ulice Veveří v Brně I.jpg, Tivoli Brno, park Koliště, vodotrysky před divadlem (6908).jpg, Janáček Theatre Brno - Hotel Grand 2015 obr1.jpg, Hotel Grand Brno - Žulové hodiny.jpg, Brno astronomical clock Masarykova street in Brno.jpg, Masarykova Street Brno-Líšeň - Líšeňský zámek ve Staré Líšni focený od Kostelíčku (2).jpg, Líšeň Castle Mesto Brno - nadvori Nove radnice v Brne pri pohledu ze schodiste.jpg, New Town Hall Pražákův palác III.jpg, Moravian Gallery – Pražák Palace Brno - Denisovy sady, obelisk obr2.jpg, Denis Gardens with obelisk Mesto Brno - hrad Spilberk.jpg, Špilberk Castle Brno Skořepka Agudas achim 3.jpg, Functionalist Agudas Achim Synagogue by Otto Eisler Ústřední autobusové nádraží Brno obr1.jpg, Central Bus Station The Victory of the Red Army over Fascism, Brno, Czechia.jpg, Red Army Statue - Park Moravské náměsti


See also

* List of people from Brno * Churches of Brno *
National Theatre (Brno) The National Theatre Brno () is an opera, ballet and drama company in the Czech Republic, that nation's second busiest. It was established in 1884 on the model of the National Theatre (Prague), National Theatre company in Prague. Today it runs ...


Notes


References


Bibliography

* *Gödel, Alois (2006). "Brünn 1679–1684". Brno: ITEM. .


External links


Official websiteOfficial tourist portal
{{authority control Brno-City District Cities and towns in the Czech Republic