Brno

The Brno basin has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and the city's direct precursor was Staré Zámky, a fortified Great Moravian hillfort near Líšeň. In the early 11th century Brno became the seat of a Přemyslid prince, and in 1091 it first appears in the chronicle of Cosmas. In 1243 its settlements were united and given a royal charter by King Wenceslaus I, and German settlers arrived. Merchants dug cellars under the market that became today's labyrinth, Queen Elisabeth Richeza founded the Cistercian convent and basilica in Old Brno in 1324, and Špilberk served as the seat of the Moravian margraves in the 14th century. Brno withstood Hussite sieges in 1428 and 1430.

In 1641 the Moravian diet, courts and land records moved permanently from Olomouc, and in 1645 Brno became the only Moravian city to hold out against the Swedes. Špilberk was rebuilt as a Baroque citadel and prison. The 18th century made Brno the "Moravian Manchester", and the 19th brought Napoleon, who stayed in the city before and after Austerlitz in 1805, the first railway in the Czech lands in 1839, the first horse tram in 1869, and Gregor Mendel's experiments with peas.

Around 1900 about two-thirds of residents spoke German. Greater Brno was created in 1919 by annexing 23 municipalities, and the interwar city became a showcase of modernist architecture. Under Nazi occupation the Kounic student hall was used as a prison and execution ground, and of more than 11,000 Jews deported, about 1,000 returned. In May 1945 more than 20,000 German residents were marched to the Austrian border; in 2015 the city council apologised for the expulsion. Communist rule ended Brno's role as Moravia's capital in 1948; since 1989 it has turned from heavy engineering to services, research and technology.

Brno is a UNESCO City of Music, and its music is above all Leoš Janáček's. He arrived as a chorister at St Thomas's Abbey in 1865, founded the organ school that grew into the Janáček Academy, and spent nearly all his life here; the opera house bears his name, and the Janáček Brno festival and Moravian Autumn bring international performers. Theatre has a long history too: the Reduta Theatre on Zelný trh is the oldest theatre building in Central Europe, the young Mozart performed there, and the Mahen Theatre was the first in Europe lit by Edison's bulbs.

Local identity is playful and proud. The Brno dragon — a stuffed crocodile in the Old Town Hall passage — and a cartwheel are civic symbols, sports teams are named after dragons and alligators, and a stuffed baguette is called a krokodýl. Hantec, the old city slang, survives in words such as šalina for tram. The cathedral bell rings noon at 11 o'clock to recall the trick that ended the Swedish siege, and the astronomical clock releases a glass ball at the same hour.

The calendar includes Ignis Brunensis, which draws more than a million spectators, re-enactments of Austerlitz and of the Swedish siege, a wine festival, and the Meeting Brno festival with its Pilgrimage of Reconciliation retracing the 1945 death march. Districts such as Medlánky and Černovice still hold hody with folk costume and maypoles, and motor racing at the Brno Circuit and HC Kometa's ice hockey have devoted followings.

Brno had 398,510 inhabitants at the 2021 census, and about 730,000 people live in the metropolitan area. It is a young city: more than 65,000 students attend its ten universities, led by Masaryk University, the Brno University of Technology and Mendel University, so one resident in six is a student. Foreign nationals make up about 17 per cent of the population.

The economy has moved from arms, tractors and machine-building to software, research and services. Gen Digital, Red Hat, Honeywell and other technology firms have large offices here, the region is a global centre for electron microscopy, and the exhibition centre hosts trade fairs throughout the year. Brno is also the seat of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, making it an important centre of the Czech judiciary.

More than half of residents rely almost entirely on public transport. Many live in the prefabricated estates built in the 1960s and 1970s at Bohunice, Líšeň, Bystrc and Vinohrady. A new main railway station, approved in 2024 on the site of the lower station, is planned for completion in 2035.

Brno eats like the rest of the country, with a Moravian lean towards wine. Pub kitchens serve svíčková, marinated beef in a thick root-vegetable sauce with dumplings, cranberries and a slice of lemon; guláš; roast duck with dumplings and red cabbage; and smažený sýr, breaded fried cheese. Olomoucké tvarůžky, an aged cheese with a strong odour, appear on pub menus fried or marinated, and utopenci, pickled sausages in a sweet-sour marinade, go with beer.

Zelný trh has sold fruit and vegetables for centuries and is the oldest continuously operating market of its kind in Central Europe; its stalls also sell Moravian koláče — yeast pastries filled with fruit, poppy seed or sweet curd — cheese, spices and herbs. In local slang a stuffed baguette is a krokodýl, after the city's dragon.

The surrounding South Moravian vineyards grow most of the country's wine, and the September wine festival celebrates the harvest. Starobrno, successor to a brewery founded by a Cistercian convent in 1325, is the city's beer, now brewed under Heineken ownership. Jakubské náměstí, with its pubs, wine bars and cafés, is where much of the city meets for a drink on summer evenings.