Moravia & Silesia

Moravia was the heart of Great Moravia, the first major Slavic state in the region, which flourished in the 9th century; the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius arrived in 863 and brought a Slavonic liturgy, and the excavated centres at Mikulčice and Staré Město near Uherské Hradiště date from this time. After its fall Moravia became a margraviate tied to the Bohemian crown, with Olomouc as its early capital and seat of the bishops.

Brno became the Moravian capital in 1641 and then held out against a Swedish siege in 1645. In 1805 Napoleon defeated the Austrian and Russian armies at Austerlitz, now Slavkov u Brna. Silesia was largely lost by the Habsburgs to Prussia in 1742, and the remaining part, with Opava as its capital, became Austrian Silesia. In the 18th and 19th centuries Brno became a textile city, known as the "Moravian Manchester", Ostrava grew on coal and iron, and the Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel worked out the laws of heredity in his abbey garden in Brno.

In the 20th century Tomáš Baťa built Zlín into a model company town for his shoe empire, and the Těšín area was divided with Poland in 1920. The German-speaking communities of Brno, Jihlava and the borderlands were expelled after 1945, and the Jewish communities of towns such as Mikulov and Třebíč were largely destroyed in the Holocaust. The communist era expanded heavy industry in Ostrava, and its decline after 1989 turned the city towards services and culture.

Moravians often see themselves as warmer, more religious and more rooted in folk tradition than Bohemians, and local speech differs noticeably from Prague Czech. The folk regions are distinct: Slovácko in the south-east with embroidered costumes and the verbuňk men's dance, recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage; Wallachia in the Beskydy with shepherd traditions and timber buildings; Haná around Olomouc; and Horácko in the highlands.

The calendar is busy with folk events. The Strážnice folk festival, held since 1946, is one of the country's oldest, and the Ride of the Kings at Vlčnov, a spring procession of young men on horseback led by a boy "king", is also on the UNESCO list. Villages hold hody, feast-day celebrations with costumed dancing, in the autumn, and the wine towns hold harvest festivals such as Mikulov's wine harvest festival. Catholic practice, pilgrimages to Velehrad and Svatý Hostýn, and church attendance are stronger here than in Bohemia.

In the north-east, Czech Silesia has its own character, with a Polish minority around Třinec and Český Těšín and industrial traditions of its own. Ostrava's nightlife on Stodolní street and its music festival give the city a reputation as the country's rough, energetic counterweight to Prague.

About 4 million people live across the five regions. Brno, with around 400,000 people, is the second-largest city in Czechia; Ostrava has about 280,000, Olomouc about 100,000, and Zlín and Jihlava are regional centres, while towns such as Kroměříž and Mikulov are much smaller.

Brno is a university city with tens of thousands of students, and its economy rests on IT, research, trade fairs and engineering. Ostrava and the Karviná basin depended on coal and steel for over a century, and the closure of mines and troubles at the steelworks have brought job losses, air-quality concerns and population decline, though Hyundai's car plant at Nošovice and new services have helped. The south lives on wine, farming and tourism; Zlín on the successors of the Baťa firm, plastics and rubber; Vysočina on farming and small industry.

The day starts early, with a hot lunch in the canteen or pub, and in the south evenings often end in a family wine cellar, the sklep, rather than the pub. Drought and heat increasingly affect the South Moravian vineyards and farms.

Moravian food shares the Czech staples but leans towards wine and fruit. Moravský vrabec, "Moravian sparrow", is pieces of pork roasted with garlic and caraway and served with dumplings and cabbage. Olomoucké tvarůžky, a pungent ripened curd cheese from Loštice with protected status, is eaten with bread, onion and beer or fried in batter. Wallachian frgály are large flat pies topped with pear, plum jam, poppy seed or sweet curd, and koláče are baked for every feast.

Moravia grows the great majority of the country's grapes. White wines lead: Grüner Veltliner (Veltlínské zelené), Welschriesling (Ryzlink vlašský), Riesling, Sauvignon and Pálava, a local aromatic crossing, alongside reds such as Frankovka and Svatovavřinecké. In autumn burčák, cloudy half-fermented grape juice, is sold in every town. The Wine Salon of the Czech Republic occupies the cellars of Valtice château.

Slivovice, plum brandy, is the traditional spirit, above all from Vizovice, and households in Wallachia and Slovácko still distil their own fruit brandies. Beer is brewed too: Starobrno in Brno, Radegast at Nošovice, Ostravar in Ostrava and Litovel near Olomouc.

Brno has Špilberk castle, the cathedral of St Peter and Paul, the Villa Tugendhat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Mendel Museum and the ossuary under St James's Church. North of the city lie the caves of the Moravian Karst and the Macocha abyss, and to the east the battlefield of Austerlitz.

South Moravia is wine country. The Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, links the neo-Gothic château at Lednice, its park and minaret, and the Baroque château at Valtice. Mikulov has its château, Holy Hill and Jewish quarter below the Pálava hills, and Znojmo its cellars and Podyjí National Park. In Vysočina, Telč's square, Třebíč's Jewish quarter and basilica and the pilgrimage church at Zelená Hora are all UNESCO-listed.

Olomouc has the Holy Trinity Column, its astronomical clock and the Baroque pilgrimage church on Svatý Kopeček. Kroměříž has the Archbishop's Palace with its Flower Garden and Château Garden, and Zlín its functionalist Baťa quarter.

In Ostrava, Dolní Vítkovice's blast furnaces and the Landek mining museum recall the industrial past. The Beskydy hills rise to Lysá hora, with Radhošť, Pustevny and the open-air museum at Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, and the Jeseníky reach Praděd, the highest peak of Moravia and Czech Silesia.