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Brno ( BUR-noh, Czech pronunciation: [ˈbr̩no] ⓘ; German: Brünn [bʁʏn] ⓘ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 404,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic after the capital, Prague, and one of the 100 largest cities in the European Union. The Brno metropolitan area has approximately 730,000 inhabitants.
Brno served as the capital of Moravia from the Middle Ages until 1948, and remains the political and cultural hub of the South Moravian Region. Brno is an important centre of the Czech judiciary. The Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, as well as state authorities, such as the Ombudsman and the Office for the Protection of Competition, are all located here. Brno is also an important centre of learning and higher education, with 10 universities, 29 faculties and a student population of over 65,000, as well as more than 60 secondary schools throughout the city.
The Brno Exhibition Centre is one of the largest in Europe. The complex opened in 1928 and has a long history of hosting international trade fairs and expositions. The Masaryk Circuit has been hosting motorsport events since 1930, including the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix. Another local tradition is the international fireworks competition and drone show Ignis Brunensis, which attracts over a million visitors annually.
Brno's traditional symbols are two medieval landmarks which dominate the cityscape: the historic Špilberk Castle and its fortifications, and the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul on Petrov hill. Another historic landmark is the Veveří Castle near the Brno Reservoir. The Villa Tugendhat, a seminal example of functionalist architecture, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites List in 2001. One of the natural sights outside the city is the Moravian Karst. Brno is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and was designated a "City of Music" in 2017.
Brno consists of 29 self-governing districts and 48 municipal parts, whose borders mostly respect the boundaries of the districts. The districts of Brno are:
The etymology of the name Brno is disputed. It might be derived from Old Czech brnie, i.e. 'muddy', 'swampy'. Alternatives are the Slavic verb brniti ('to armour' or 'to fortify') or a Celtic origin. The latter theory would make it cognate with other Celtic words for hill, such as the Welsh word bryn. Throughout its history, locals in Brno have also referred to their city in different languages, including Brünn in German, ברין (Brin) in Yiddish, and Bruna in Latin. The town was also referred to as Brunn () in English, but this variant is no longer common today. The asteroid 2889 Brno was named after the city, as was the Bren light machine gun. The latter was in wide use during World War II, and its name derives from 'Brno' and 'Enfield', the site of the Royal Small Arms Factory.
The Brno Basin has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as evidenced by a 2024 discovery of mammoth bones and prehistoric tools dating back 15,000 years. This aligns with the region's rich Paleolithic history, which includes nearby sites Dolní Věstonice and Švédův stůl with traces of Neanderthal activity.
The city's direct precursor was Staré Zámky, a fortified Great Moravian hillfort near Brno-Líšeň inhabited from the Neolithic Age until the early 11th century. Serving as a strategic hub connecting the empire's center with regional ironworks, the settlement was destroyed by a catastrophic fire around the turn of the 10th century and its remnants are now a protected monument.
In the early 11th century, Brno was established as the seat of a non-ruling prince from the House of Přemyslid, and it became one of the centres of Moravia, along with Olomouc and Znojmo. Brno was first mentioned in Cosmas' Chronica Boemorum, dating to 1091, when King Vratislaus II besieged his brother, Conrad, at Brno castle. In the mid-11th century, Moravia was divided into three separate territories. Each had its own ruler, who came from the Přemyslids dynasty but was independent of the other two, and subordinate to the Bohemian ruler in Prague. The seats of these rulers and thus the "capitals" of these three territories were the castles and towns of Brno, Olomouc, and Znojmo. In the late 12th century, Moravia began to reunify, forming the Margraviate of Moravia. From then until the middle of the 17th century, political power was divided between Brno and Olomouc, with Znojmo playing a tertiary role. Olomouc had a larger population than Brno and was also the seat of the Diocese of Olomouc, the sole bishopric in Moravia until 1777. The Moravian Diet, the Moravian Land Tables, and the Moravian Land Court convened in both cities. These assemblies made political, legal, and financial decisions.
Before the 13th century, there were virtually no Germans living in the Czech lands. Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia were inhabited by an essentially all-Slavic population. In 1243, the separate settlements that made up Brno were consolidated into a single fortified settlement and granted a royal city charter by King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia. As was common throughout Central and Eastern Europe at the time, the royal city charter was closely tied to the arrival of German settlers and other migrants.
Around the turn of the 13th century, merchants on the main market, now known as Zelný trh, one of Brno's oldest squares, began building cellars to store food, wine, and beer. Although these vaults initially supported only local commerce, they became a vital part of the city's infrastructure and served as temporary shelters in wartime. They expanded over time, particularly in the Baroque period, and are now known as Labyrinth Under the Vegetable Market (Czech: Labyrint pod Zelným trhem). In 1324, Queen Elisabeth Richeza of Poland built the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady, where she is now buried, along with a Cistercian convent, which later became an Augustinian Abbey.
From the mid-14th century to the early 15th century, during the rule of the Moravian branch of the Luxembourg dynasty, Špilberk Castle served as the official seat of the Moravian margraves. One of them, Jobst of Moravia, was elected the King of the Romans. The Margraviate of Moravia was reunited under the Bohemian crown after his death. During the Hussite Wars, Brno was besieged by the Hussites twice, in 1428 and in 1430. Both attempts to conquer the city were unsuccessful.
In 1641, during the Thirty Years' War, the Holy Roman Emperor and the margrave of Moravia, Ferdinand III, ordered the permanent relocation of the Diet, the Land Court, and the Land Tables from Olomouc to Brno, as Collegium Nordicum had made Olomouc the primary target of the Swedish armies. In 1642, Olomouc surrendered to the Swedish Army, which occupied it for eight years. Brno, under the leadership of Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches, successfully resisted the siege of Brno in 1645, the only Moravian city that succeeded in defending itself from the Swedes, who were commanded by Field Marshal Lennart Torstensson. Brno subsequently served as the sole capital of the Margraviate of Moravia.
After the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, Brno retained its status as the sole capital of the region. That was later confirmed by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in 1782, and again in 1849 by the Moravian constitution. Today, the Moravian Land Tables are stored in the Moravian Regional Archive and are designated as a national cultural heritage site of the Czech Republic. During the 17th century, Špilberk Castle was rebuilt as a massive baroque citadel. Brno was besieged by the Prussian Army led by Frederick the Great during the War of the Austrian Succession in 1742, but the siege was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1777, the bishopric of Brno was established by Pope Pius VI, with Mathias Franz Graf von Chorinsky Freiherr von Ledske as its first bishop.
During the 18th century, Brno experienced a significant textile industry boom, resulting in the rapid expansion of its suburbs and earning it the nickname "Moravian Manchester". Brno flourished economically through the end of the 19th century. The city infrastructure, including sewer and water supply systems, was improved, and the fortifications around Špilberk Castle were reinforced. Rapid industrialisation brought about poor housing and working conditions for factory workers. Child labour, tuberculosis, inhumanely long shifts, and unequal relations between employees and employers were commonplace.
In December 1805, the Battle of Austerlitz was fought near the city; the battle is also known as the "Battle of the Three Emperors". Although Brno itself was not directly involved in the battle, the city was under French occupation, which conferred significant hardship on the local population. In the wake of the hostilities, there was a devastating typhoid fever outbreak due to the mild winter temperatures that year. The French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in Brno from 20 November to 12 December 1805. The French returned in 1809 and occupied the city for four months after the Battle of Znaim. Napoleon ordered the fortification around Špilberk Castle dismantled and leveled, and the Castle lost its military significance as a fortress. These events are the theme of re-enactments that attract an international audience every year.
In 1839, the first train arrived in Brno from Vienna via the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway. That marked the beginning of rail transport in the Czech Republic and Austria. Between 1859 and 1864, city fortifications were almost completely removed. In 1869, a horsecar service began operating in Brno, marking it the first tram service in what would later become the Czech Republic. Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian monk and geneticist, conducted groundbreaking genetics experiments with pea plants at St. Thomas's Abbey in Brno during the 1850s. The monastery served as a local hub for education, culture, and the arts, with a well-stocked library and other amenities. Mendel's work was not recognized during his lifetime, and he abandoned it after he was elected abbot of the monastery in 1868. Brno is home to Mendel University, which has been located there since the mid-1990s, when the former University of Agriculture, the nation's oldest agricultural school, was renamed in his honour.
Tomáš Masaryk, the first president and founding father of Czechoslovakia, attended a German-language grammar school (German: Deutsches Ober-Gymnasium) in Brno between 1865 and 1869. His school served as a military hospital during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, which led to the creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Although no major conflict took place in Brno during the war, the Prussian Army occupied the city following the Battle of Königgrätz. Several days later, a cholera epidemic that claimed the lives of more than 1,400 residents broke out. Masaryk later became a proponent of a second Czech university, alongside Charles University, which was established in Brno in 1919 and named after him. The Masaryk Circuit and Masarykova Street, connecting Liberty Square and the train station, are also named in his honour.
Leoš Janáček, ranked among most-performed opera composers in the world, accepted a chorister scholarship at St. Thomas's Abbey in 1865. He would spend the rest of his life in Brno, except for the period between 1872 and 1881 when he pursued advanced musical studies in Prague, Vienna, and Leipzig. He founded the Brno Organ School, which is now part of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU), upon his return in 1881. Janáček had a profound impact on Brno and its cultural life. His legacy helped transform the city into a major cultural hub. Owing to his significance to Brno's history, several places and institutions have been named in his honour. In addition to JAMU, there is also the Janáček Theatre, an opera house and the largest of the three theatres belonging to the National Theatre Brno.
At the start of the 20th century, roughly two-thirds of Brno's residents spoke German, but its suburbs and neighbouring towns were predominantly Czech-speaking. Everyday life in the city was bilingual. The local German dialect, known as Brünnerisch, incorporated elements from both languages. The end of World War I brought about the partition of Austria-Hungary, and more than three million Germans found themselves separated from Austria and under Czech control. After the Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed on 28 October 1918, the Sudeten Germans asserted their right to self-determination and peacefully opposed the Czech military taking control of their homeland. Fighting broke out sporadically, resulting in casualties. Moravia contained patches of "landlocked" German territory to the north and south. German-language islands and towns inhabited by German-speaking populations, surrounded by Czech speakers, were common, just as in Brno.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Brno”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.