Czechia – Moravia (Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava, Zlín) September 28-29,2019
BRNO
Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 400,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic after the capital, Prague.
Brno is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office, and a number of state authorities, including the Ombudsman, and the Office for the Protection of Competition. Brno is also an important centre of higher education, with 33 faculties belonging to 13 institutes of higher learning and about 89,000 students.
Brno Exhibition Centre ranks among the largest exhibition centres in Europe. The complex opened in 1928 and established the tradition of large exhibitions and trade fairsheld in Brno. Brno hosts motorbike and other races on the Masaryk Circuit, a tradition established in 1930, in which the Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is one of the most prestigious races. Another cultural tradition is an international fireworks competition, Ignis Brunensis, that attracts tens of thousands of daily visitors.
The most visited sights of the city include the Špilberk castle and fortress and the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul on Petrov hill, two medieval buildings that dominate the cityscape and are often depicted as its traditional symbols. The other large preserved castle near the city is Veveří Castle by Brno Reservoir. Another architectural monument of Brno is the functionalist Villa Tugendhat which has been included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. One of the natural sights nearby is the Moravian Karst. The city is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and has been designated as a “City of Music” in 2017.
Tugendhat Villa in Brno. A World Heritage Sites, this residence was built for Fritz and Greta Tugendhat, both from wealthy Brno families and designed by German architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich. It is one of the pioneering prototypes of modern architecture in Europe, the villa soon became an icon of modernism.
Sitting in a wealthy neighbourhood at the top of a hill on a slope, it has views of all of Brno. It is white, 3-storied, flat roofed and made of reinforced concrete around a steel frame. The floor to ceiling windows are fully glazed on the east and south consisting of 2 sheets of plate glass. They are electrically operated, can be fully opened and allow a huge amount of light to enter the house. The 1st floor, the basement is technical. The 2nd floor is the living and social area with a conservatory, library, kitchens, darkroom, large terrace, and staff quarters. The living and dining area are separated by an wall of onyx imported from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The other wall is semi-circular ebony. The stairway is separated by Noki glass. The 3rd floor contains the bedrooms of the couple, their children and their governess, the bathroom. This is also the entrance from the street.
The furniture was all custom designed and most made of flat steel and wood (the Tugendhat chair and the Brno chair are still in production). There were no paintings or decorative items in the villa, but the interior was by no means austere because of the onyx that is partially transluscent and changes color with the light.
The architect managed to make the magnificent view from the villa an integral part of the interior.
The cost was very high due to the unusual construction method, luxurious materials, and the use of modern technology for heating and ventilation. An ultra-modern air-conditioning system was here and a glass façade that opens completely assisted by a mechanism built into the wall. The floor area was unusually large and open compared to the average family home of the period, which, in addition to the various storage rooms, made the structure unique if not confusing to visitors not used to such minimalism.
It is seen only by reservation made on their website www.tugandhat.eu and tends to be fully booked well ahead of time. 350
St Thomas’s Abbey (Old Brno Monastery). The church (Basilica Minor) associated with the abbey is lovely as it is totally painted inside. All the blocks are outlined in red and have florals in the middle. The columns, ribs and lower walls are likewise painted in geometric designs. The altars, pulpit and side altars are all Baroque marble columns, stucco statues and gilt trim. The only stained glass window is above the entrance – a modern creation inside more traditional windows and topped by a great rose window. Free
Mendel Museum. Located on the grounds of the Augustinian Abbey, it features an exhibition exploring Gregor Mendel’s (1822-84) life as an abbot, a scientist, and a person. This permanent exhibition is spread over five rooms, each dominated by a single theme, such as peas or a beehive. The first room deals with life in the abbey, the second introduces Mendel as a person, the third presents his interests (breeding, fruit-growing, beekeeping, and meteorology), the fourth shows Mendel as the scientist who discovered the laws of inheritance, and the last deals with significant events in the history of genetics.
Mendel entered the abbey as a monk in 1843 and spent the next 42 years here, eventually becoming the abbot. His work was not discovered until 1900 and the word genetics not coined until 1905.
In 2016, a new exhibition designed as a visualisation of Mendel’s life. Science enthusiasts may attend any of the Mendel Lectures, which are given by famous biologists, geneticists, and molecular biologists.
The museum’s exterior features a garden with the preserved foundations of the greenhouse in which Mendel conducted his pea experiments, as well as garden beds and a beehive. There is also a meteorological station continuing the tradition of the one used by Mendel, which can be seen inside the museum. 100
St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral. This single nave church has 4 marble arched backed chapels on each side. It is otherwise unremarkable. Free
Zelný trh. This vegetable market has existed in the main square around the Parnas Fountain since the Middle Ages.
Parnas Fountain. The Vegetable Market (Aelnýý trh) in the main square, surrounds this massive fountain with gargoyles and a number of Baroque sculptures. It was built between 1693 and 1695 by the Vienna architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. The basin of the fountain bears a six-pointed layout which serves as a base for a cave among natural rocks. There are many mythical and allegorical figures. Three allegorical figures represent three old empires – Babylon, Persia and Greece plus Heracles leading the three-headed dog Cerberus on a chain. Water was supplied into the fountain by means of the oldest Brno water-conduit from the river Svratka. The work is considered to be the most valuable monument of Baroque sculpture in Brno.
Botanical Garden and Arboretum of Mendel University. Established in 1938, the garden and arboretum originally covered an area of two hectares. In 1967, the premises were extended to the current 11 hectares. The area is now divided into five units based on their focus. The collections contain around 4,000 species of orchids, 300 species of tillandsias, 2,000 perennials, 350 cultivars of iris macrantha, 500 rock plants, and 4,000 species of woody plants. Regular exhibitions of various kinds of plants are held and themed weekends are organized in spring and autumn.
I did laundry in Brno. Needing Czech money, I went to an ATM and a 500 CZH bill (about €20) was protruding from the slot. That never happens to me. Laundry was free.
OLOMOUC
HOLY TRINITY COLUMN in OLOMOUC
A World Heritage Site, this is a Baroque monument built between 1716 to 1754. The main purpose was to celebrate the Catholic Church and faith, partly caused by feeling of gratitude for ending a plague, which struck Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) between 1713 and 1715. The column was also understood to be an expression of local patriotism, since all artists and master craftsmen working on this monument were Olomouc citizens, and almost all depicted saints were connected with the city of Olomouc in some way.
It is the biggest Baroque sculptural group in the Czech Republic. In 2000 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as “one of the most exceptional examples of the apogee of central European Baroque artistic expression”. According to the ICOMOS evaluation of this patrimony, “the erection of Marian (plague) columns on town squares is an exclusively Baroque, post-Tridentine, phenomenon. Its iconographic basis lies in the Book of Revelation. The basic model is thought to have been the column in the Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, from 1614.
History. This monument for Olomouc was the culmination of work of several artists and master craftsmen, but it did not bring much fortune to them. The first to die during the work was Wenzel Render, a monumental mason and privileged imperial architect. He had the idea to build the column, enforced his will upon the city council, designed it, built the first stage and helped to finance it. His followers Franz Thoneck, Johann Wenzel Rokický and Augustin Scholtz also did not live long enough to see the column finished; it was completed by Johann Ignaz Rokický. The sculptural decoration was started by Phillip Sattler. After his death Andreas Zahner continued and made 18 sculptures and 9 reliefs in 7 years before he died as well. Goldsmith Simon Forstner, who made gilded copper sculptures of the Holy Trinity and of the Assumption of the Virgin, was somewhat luckier and managed to finish his brilliant work. However he lost his health when working on the sculptures and using toxic mercury compounds during the gilding process.
After the Holy Trinity Column was finished in 1754, it became a source of great pride for Olomouc, since all people participating in its creation were citizens of the town. The column was consecrated in a great celebration attended by Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis I.
Only four years later, in 1758, Olomouc was besieged by a Prussian army and the Holy Trinity Column was hit by shots from Prussian cannons several times, Olomouc citizens went in a procession to beg the Prussian general not to shoot at the monument. General James Keith complied with their wishes. The column was repaired soon after the war and a replica of a stone shot was half-buried in its stem on the place where it was hit to remind people of this event.
Description. The column is dominated by gilded copper sculptures of the Holy Trinity accompanied by the Archangel Gabriel on the top and the Assumption of the Virgin beneath it.
The base of the column, in three levels, is surrounded by 18 more stone sculptures of saints and 14 reliefs in elaborate cartouches. At the uppermost stage are saints connected with Jesus’ earth life – his mother’s parents St. Anne and St. Joachim, his foster-father St. Joseph, and St. John the Baptist, who was preparing his coming – who are accompanied by St. Lawrence and St. Jerome, saints to whom the chapel in the Olomouc town hall was dedicated. Three reliefs represent the three theological virtues Faith, Hope, and Love.
Below them, the second stage is dedicated to Moravian saints St. Cyril and St. Methodius (Czech Metoděj), who came to Great Moravia to spread Christianity in 863 (St. Methodius became Moravian Archbishop), St. Blaise, in whose name one of the main Olomouc churches is consecrated, and patrons of neighbouring Bohemia St. Adalbert of Prague (Czech Vojtěch) and St. John of Nepomuk, whose following was very strong there as well.
In the lowest stage one can see the figures of an Austrian patron St. Maurice and a Bohemian patron St. Wenceslas in whose names two important Olomouc churches were consecrated, another Austrian patron St. Florian, who was also viewed as a protector against various disasters, especially fire, St. John of Capistrano, who used to preach in Olomouc, St. Anthony of Padua, a member of the Franciscan Order, that owned an important monastery in Olomouc, and St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a patron of students. His sculpture showed that Olomouc was very proud of its university.
Bas-reliefs of all twelve apostles are placed among these sculptures on the column itself. There are also 13 cherubic angels between the statues on the third stage. Many statues hold gold crosses and staffs.
John Sarkander, whose statue (holding a lily as a symbol of purity) is on the second stage. John Sarkander was a priest who was tortured to death in Olomouc prison in the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War, because he, as the legend says, refused to break the seal of confession. The decision to place him here violated the tradition, since Sarkander had not been canonized and not even beatified in that time yet, which could have resulted in problems with the Holy See. However, his following was so strong here that the craftsmen decided to take the risk. Sarkander was beatified in 1859 and canonized in 1995 on the occasion of the visit of Pope John Paul II in Olomouc.
Inner chapel. The column also houses a small chapel inside with reliefs depicting Cain’s offering from his crop, Abel’s offering of firstlings of his flock, Noah’s first burnt offering after the Flood, Abraham’s offering of Isaac and of a lamb, and Jesus’ death. The cities of Jerusalem and Olomouc can be seen in the background of the last mentioned relief.
In the main square, it is extremely dirty, dark and stained but is a monumental creation.
Saint Wenceslas Cathedral. This gothic single-nave church has twin towers in the front and a huge tower on the back right dated 1886-90. Inside all is painted with geometrics and florals. The Ways of the Cross are wrought bronze sculptures. At mass on Sunday, the church was surprisingly full.
Hradisko Monastery. On the NE outskirts of Olomouk, this is a medical facility/hospital. It doesn’t have a church. The date 1785 is on the front tower entrance.
Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
Kroměříž Castle used to be the principal residence of the bishops and (from 1777) archbishops of Olomouc.
History. The first residence on the site was founded by bishop Stanislas Thurzo in 1497. The building was in a Late Gothic style, with a modicum of Renaissance detail. During the Thirty Years’ War, the castle was sacked by the Swedish army (1643).
It was not until 1664 that a bishop from the powerful Liechtenstein family charged architect Filiberto Lucchese with renovating the palace in a Baroque style. The chief monument of Lucchese’s work in Kroměříž is the Pleasure Garden in front of the castle. Upon Lucchese’s death in 1666, Giovanni Pietro Tencalla completed his work on the formal garden and had the palace rebuilt in a style reminiscent of the Turinese school to which he belonged.
After the castle was gutted by a major fire in March 1752, Bishop Hamilton commissioned two leading imperial artists, Franz Anton Maulbertsch and Josef Stern, arrived at the residence in order to decorate the halls of the palace with their works. In addition to their paintings, the palace still houses an art collection, generally considered the second finest in the country, which includes Titian’s last mythological painting, The Flaying of Marsyas. The largest part of the collection was acquired by Bishop Karel in Cologne in 1673. The palace also contains an outstanding musical archive and a library of 33,000 volumes.
Landscape Architecture and Architecture. UNESCO listed the gardens and palace among the World Heritage Sites in 1998. As the nomination dossier explains, “the castle is a good but not outstanding example of a type of aristocratic or princely residence that has survived widely in Europe. The Pleasure Garden, by contrast, is a very rare and largely intact example of a Baroque garden”. The Baroque landscapes and palaces of Bohemia and Moravia were heavily influenced by the Italian Baroque, although in the layout of this Pleasure Gardens on a largely flat site, the influence of the French Formal Baroque style is also visible. Two Italian architects were responsible for the design and execution of the site, Filiberto Luchese (1607–1666) and after his death Giovanni Pietro Tencalla (1629–1702).
The Baroque Pleasure or Lust Garden is located at a distance from the Palace, as can be seen today from aerial photography. The engravings completed in 1691 by Georg Matthaeus Vischer, show a fully enclosed garden divided into half ornamental parterre and the other half to the south composed or orchards and productive ornamental features
Apart from the formal Baroque parterres there is also a less formal nineteenth-century English garden close to the palace, which sustained damage during floods in 1997. This “Chateau Garden” is free – lovely French garden at the front, then mostly grass and mature trees, ponds, canals, statues, an obelisk, pavilions.
There are many options of tickets (too many to list) including the Baroque gardens, Rotunda and palace rooms, art gallery (all 16th and 17th century religious art and not interesting). All guided tours were in Czech only and on a Sunday were almost devoid of people.
Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape
This is a cultural-natural landscape complex of 283.09km2 in the Lednice and Valtice areas of the South Moravian Region, near Břeclav in the Czech Republic.
The Lednice-Valtice Area is registered in the list of monuments protected as World Heritage Sites (WHS) by UNESCO. It is adjacent to the Pálava Landscape Protected Area (Pálava Biosphere Reserve), a WHS registered by UNESCO several years before. The close proximity of two cultural landscapes protected by UNESCO is unique.
The House of Liechtenstein acquired a castle in Lednice in 1249, which marked the beginning of their settlement in the area. It remained the principal Liechtenstein residence for 700 years, until 1939 and World War II.
17th—19th centuries. The Dukes of Liechtenstein transformed their properties into one large and designed private park between the 17th and 20th centuries. During the 19th century, the Dukes continued transforming the area as a large traditional English landscape park. The Baroque and Gothic Revival style architecture of their chateaux are married with smaller buildings and a landscape that was fashioned according to the English principles of landscape architecture.
In 1715 these two chateaux (castles) were connected by a landscape allée and road, later renamed for the poet Petr Bezruč. The Lednice Ponds (Lednické rybníky) are situated between the villages of Valtice, Lednice, and Hlohovec; as are the Mlýnský, Prostřední, Hlohovecký, and Nesyt Ponds. A substantial part of the cultural landscape complex is covered in pine forests, known as the “Pine−wood”, and in areas adjacent to the River Dyje with riparian forests.
20th century. In the 20th century the region became part of new Czechoslovakia The Liechtenstein family opposed the annexation of Czech territory as a part of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany, and as a consequence their properties were confiscated by the Nazis, and the family then relocated to Vaduz in 1939. After World War II the family made several legal attempts for restitution of the properties. However, they had passed post-war into ownership by the new communist Czechoslovakia. Of course its Communist government did not support returning large estates to exiled aristocratic landowners.
After the Czechoslovakian Velvet Revolution in 1989, the Liechtenstein descendants again renewed legal attempts for restitution, which were denied by the Czech state, the present day owner of the properties.
The principal elements are:
Chateau Valtice and its contiguous town/village of Valtice.
Chateau Lednice Castle and its contiguous village of Lednice.
The village of Hlohovec.
Pavilions and follies
In addition to the castles, there are many large to small residential pavilions located throughout the designed landscape, often serving as chateau or hunting lodges.[2]
The Colonnade in Valtice
The Colonnade − Rajsna — a Neoclassical colonnade on the top of a hill ridge above Valtice from the 1810s to 1820s
Belvedere Rendezvous (or Temple of Diana) — a hunting lodge in a form of a Neoclassical arch from the 1810s
St Hubert Chapela — a Gothic Revival column structure from the 1850s dedicated to the patron saint of hunters, situated in the Pine wood
Border House — a Classicist chateau built in the 1820s directly on the former (until 1920) borderline between Lower Austria and Moravia
Temple of the Three Graces — a semicircle gallery with allegorical statues of Sciences and Muses and a statue of the Three Graces from the 1820s
Pond House — at the shore of one of the Lednice Ponds
Nový dvůr (New Farm) — a Neoclassical farm finished in 1809, originally used for sheep husbandry, nowadays for horse breeding
Apollo Temple — a Neoclassical hunting lodge from the 1810s, ashore of one of the Lednice Ponds
Hunting Lodge — a Neoclassical house from 1806
John’s Castle — a Gothic Revival style folly of “artificial ruins” in style of a castle, finished in 1810
Minaret — an 1804 Moorish Revival style “minaret” observation tower 62 metres high, located in the Lednice Castle garden, that provides a view of the entire landscape. On clear days the Pálava Hills and Malé Karpaty Mountains can also be seen from the towers.
Obelisk — an obelisk erected in memory of the peace treaty of Campo Formio (1798)
Pohansko — an Empire-style hunting lodge finished after 1812, it houses an exhibition of Břeclav Town Museum: close to the lodge there are both an important archaeological site of Great Moravian remains and reconstructed parts of the Czechoslovak border fortifications
Lány — an Empire-style hunting lodge from the beginning of the 19th century
NOMAD MANIA Czechia – Moravia (Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava, Zlín)
World Heritage Sites
Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc
Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape
Tugendhat Villa in Brno
Tentative WHS
Great Spas of Europe (17/06/2014)
Paper Mill at Velké Losiny (19/01/2001)
Sites of Great Moravia: Slavonic Fortified Settlement at Mikulcice – Church of St.Margaret at Kopčani (06/07/2001)The Industrial Complexes at Ostrava (06/07/2001) lower Vitkovice Area
The Spa at Luhacovice (06/07/2001)
Sights (Temporarily Reinstated)
Bouzov Castle
Lednice Castle
Moravian Karst and Caves
Znojmo Old Town and Castle
Borders
Austria-Czechia
Czechia-Poland
Czechia-Slovakia
XL
Cieszyn/Český Těšín
Osoblaha and Hlinka Panhandle
Trebom and Sudice Panhandle
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars
Czech Republic Intercity Railway Experience
Super City Pendolino services (Prague-Ostrava)
Museums
Hrabyne: Silesian Museum
Hulcin: Museum Hlučínska
Opava: Municipal House Opava
Opava: Silesian Museum
Uherské Hradiště: Slovácké muzeum
Castles, Palaces, Forts
Bitov: Bítov Castle
Bouzov: Bouzov Castle
Buchlovice: Buchlov Castle
Mikulov: Mikulov Castle
Valtice: Valtice Chateau
Modern Architecture Buildings: Orlova: The Gymnasium
Entertainment/Things to do: Rock Café, Nove Mesto
Zoos:
Hodonín Zoo
Zlín-Lešná Zoo
Windmills
Bukovany: Bukovany Windmill (Bukovany marked)
Kuželov: Windmill
Ruprechtov: Windmill Ruprechtov
Caves
Amatérská Cave
Hranice Abyss
Kůlna Cave
Mladeč caves
Moravian Karst
Punkva Caves
Zbrašov aragonite caves
Open-Air Museums
Příkazy: Hanácké open air museum (Hanácké Skanzen)
Rožnov pod Radhoštěm: Wallachian Open Air Museum
Uherske Hradiste: Skanzen Rochus
Aviation Museums: Vyskov Air Museum
Vehicle Museums: Kopřivnice: Tatra Museum
Bizzarium: Kingdom of Wallachia (micronation)
Festivals
Colours, Ostrava
Gorolski Święto
Janáček Music Festival, Ostrava
Masters of Rock
European Cities
BRNO World City and Popular Town
World Heritage Sites: Tugendhat Villa in Brno
Airports: Brno (BRQ)
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars: Brno Trams
Museums
Diocesan Museum
Moravian Gallery in Brno
Moravian Museum
Museum of Applied Arts
Museum of Romani Culture
Museum of the City of Brno
Technical museum
VIDA Science Center
House Museums/Plantations
Jurkovič House
Mendel Museum
Villa Tugendhat
Religious Temples
St Thomas’s Abbey (Old Brno Monastery)
St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral
Zoos: Brno Zoo
Modern Architecture Buildings: Villa Tugendhat
Botanical Gardens: Botanical Garden and Arboretum of Mendel University
Planetariums: Brno Observatory and Planetarium
Markets: Zelný trh
Monuments: Parnas Fountain
The Dark Side: Nuclear Shelter 10-Z
OLOMOUC
World Heritage Sites: Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars: Olomouc Trams
Museums
Archdiocesan Museum
Olomouc History museum
Olomouc Museum of Art
Regional Museum of Olomouc
Religious Temples
Zoos: Olomouc Zoo
Railway Museums: Olomouc Railway Museum
OSTRAVA World Cities and Popular Towns
Tentative WHS: The Industrial Complexes at Ostrava (06/07/2001)
Airports: Ostrava (OSR)
Railway, Metro, Funiculars, Cable Cars: Ostrava Trams
Museums
Mining Museum
Ostrava Museum
The Small World of Technology U6
Religious Temples: Cathedral of the Divine Saviour
Zoos: Ostrava Zoo
Planetariums: Planetarium Ostrava
ZLIN
Museums
Museum of Shoemaking
Museum of Southeast Moravia
Villages and Small Towns
Mikulov
Znojmo
LÁZNÊ LUHACOVICE
Tentative WHS The Spa at Luhacovice (06/07/2001)
KROMĚŘÍŽ
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Kroměříž: Kroměříž Archbishop’s Palace
LEDNICE
World Heritage Sites: Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape
Castles, Palaces, Forts: Lednice: Lednice Chateau
