With three consonants out of four letters, the Czech city of Brno is already a peculiarity. But the town, best known for its Masaryk circuit and motorbike grand prix, has much to offer curious tourists and enterprising travellers. Such as the Starobrno Brewery, the brewery where one of the Czech Republic's most famous beers is made. A post-modern building not far from the centre, the Starobrno welcomes visitors with educational films about the history of beer and the evolution of the brand in the Czech Republic. This is followed by a small exhibition of the symbols of the city and the Republic, such as beer, the crocodile, the astronomical clock and the cat-headed man.
The brewery celebrated its first 150 years in 2022. Since 1872, the brewery has been located in the same spot, although in the beginning, water from the Svratka River was used to produce the estimated 50,000 hectolitres. In 2003, the multinational company Heineken bought Starobrno, which reached a production of one million hectolitres in 2010. Visitors can tour the brewery and the areas where the cylindrical-conical tanks for fermenting beer are opened. From the catwalk they can see the line for blowing, filling and packaging pet bottles. Finally, all adults are offered a tasting session directly in the brewery's lager cellar. For those who are still thirsty, there is always the official restaurant opposite the brewery, which also offers a cosy outdoor area.
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But, as mentioned, Brno offers more than just an ancient brewery. As old as, or rather a little less than, its castle. That fortress we all heard about in school when Silvio Pellico and his prisons were explained to us, namely the Spielberg. A name that at the time only reminded us of a famous film director, but which here becomes Hrad Špilberk and materialises in an enormous military construction on top of a hill not far from the city centre. A sinister place with a very cumbersome past. Indeed, it was not only a rather ferocious Austro-Hungarian prison. But also the site of a real Nazi “church” complete with altar, traces of which still remain. The park that surrounds the hill and the beautiful view will give you the necessary impetus to continue discovering the city.
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Which, by the way, boasts several rather gloomy sights: Bunker 10z, the Ossuary of St Jacob's Church, the underground cellars, the Museum of Life in the Time of Socialism.... But there is also the utterly unique architecture of the modernist Villa Tugendhat and the Zoo. And a flying crocodile: in the building of the former Town Hall of the Moravian city, near the Cabbage Market, in addition to the 63-metre-high tower that offers a beautiful view of the Renaissance rooftops, you can admire a stuffed Nile crocodile hanging from the vaults of the building. The crocodile, a female, was brought as a gift from a Turkish delegation that visited Brno in 1608. Due to a series of legends and stories that have accumulated over the centuries, the animal is also known as the Brno Dragon.
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