A short history of Brno

Brno is the historic capital of Moravia, one of the three traditional Czech lands alongside Bohemia and Czech Silesia. It developed around a castle and trading settlement and was officially established as a town in 1243.

During the Middle Ages, Brno became an important fortified commercial centre. One of its defining moments came in 1645, during the Thirty Years' War, when the city successfully resisted a much larger Swedish army. Špilberk Castle later became a major Habsburg fortress and an infamous prison.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Brno grew rapidly under the Habsburg Empire. Its textile industry became so important that the city was sometimes called the "Manchester of Moravia." The population included substantial Czech, German and Jewish communities.

After Austria-Hungary collapsed in 1918, Brno became part of the new Czechoslovakia. The interwar years were particularly important architecturally: Brno became a centre of modernism, exemplified by Villa Tugendhat, completed in 1930 and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The city was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Brno's Jewish community was devastated in the Holocaust. After the war, most of the city's German-speaking population was expelled under the post-war Czechoslovak government's policies.

From 1948 to 1989, Brno was part of communist Czechoslovakia. Following the Velvet Revolution of 1989, democracy returned.

When Czechoslovakia peacefully divided on 1 January 1993, Brno became part of the new Czech Republic (Czechia). Today it's the country's second-largest city, a major university and technology centre, while retaining its strong Moravian identity.

In a nutshell: medieval Moravian city → Habsburg industrial powerhouse → Czechoslovak city → communist era → modern Czech university and technology centre.Read more