Visit Brno

First impressions of Brno

Brno is Czechia's confident, much-less-touristy second city — a university town that has been quietly cool for a decade, with one of the most progressive coffee, craft beer, and design scenes in Central Europe. The compact medieval centre revolves around Náměstí Svobody (Freedom Square) and the Cabbage Market, with the wonky baroque Parnas Fountain and the 13th-century Old Town Hall (climb its tower for a panorama). Above the city, Špilberk Castle was once one of the Habsburgs' most feared political prisons; today it's a museum and viewpoint. Across town, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul — the church that famously rings noon at 11am, a tradition rooted in the city's 1645 siege survival — sits on Petřov Hill. Don't miss Villa Tugendhat, the 1930 Mies van der Rohe masterpiece that essentially defined modernist domestic architecture (UNESCO World Heritage, advance booking essential), the brutalist Hotel International, and the haunting Capuchin Crypt with its mummified monks. Brno is also the gateway to the Moravian Karst caves and the Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape, both an easy half-day away.