What You Need To Know
Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic by population and area, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative center of the South Moravian Region in which it forms a separate district. The city lies at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers .
It’s known for its modernist buildings, like the restored Villa Tugendhat, completed in 1930 by architect Mies van der Rohe. The medieval Špilberk Castle houses a city museum, gardens and a former prison with vaulted tunnels. The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul has baroque altars, a 14th-century statue of the Madonna and Child, and city views from its steeple.
Brno is the seat of judicial authority of the Czech Republic – it is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office. The city is also a significant administrative centre. It is the seat of 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.
Population: 367,729
Area: 230.2 km²
Currency
The official currency of the Czech Republic is the Czech crown (koruna), abbreviated as Kč, with the international abbreviation CZK. 1 crown consists of 100 hellers (haléř), abbreviated as hal. Heller coins have not been in use as of September 1, 2008, but hellers are still incorporated into merchandise prices. The final price is always rounded off to the nearest crown value. The approximate value of 100 CZK is 4 EUR/5 USD.
As the official currency, the Czech crown is the best and often the only possible currency to use when paying. Although the Czech Republic is part of the European Union, the euro is not widely accepted here yet. Some stores, restaurants and hotels accept payments in euros but the exchange rate may not be very good.
Climate
Under the Köppen climate classification, Brno has a borderline oceanic climate (Cfb) and a humid continental climate (Dfb) with cold winters and hot to warm summers. However, in the last 20 years the temperature has increased, and summer days with temperature above 30 °C (86 °F) are quite common. The average temperature is 9.4 °C (49 °F), the average annual precipitation is about 505 mm (19.88 in), the average number of precipitation days is 150, the average annual sunshine is 1,771 hours, and the prevailing wind direction is northwest. The weather box below shows average data between years 1961 and 1990. Its height above sea level varies from 190 m (623 ft) to 425 m (1,394 ft), and the highest point in the area is the Kopeček Hill.
Economy
As the second largest city in the Czech Republic, Brno’s local economy is one of the strongest in the country. Although traditionally an industrial city, Brno has over the last two decades made the transition to an information economy, and the service sector is now the largest in terms of economic output. Brno is an important center for research and development in the Czech Republic, particularly in the fields of technology and clinical research, as is demonstrated by the two major research centers located in the city: the Central European Institute of Technology and the International Clinical Research Center. Engineering and software development are also major industries. Tourism is also central to the economy, and after Prague, Brno is the most visited city in the Czech Republic. Expatriates working in Brno tend to be employed in research and development, or work as English teachers.
Education
Over the past two decades Brno evolved into an important university city, the number of students of higher education institutions reached 89,000 in 2010. The city also became home to a number of institutions directly related to research and development, like the Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), or the International Clinical Research Center in Brno (ICRC). The city is also gaining importance in various fields of engineering, especially in software development, there is a number of companies focused on development operating in Brno. For example, AVG Technologies (headquarters), IBM (Client Innovation Centre Brno), AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph) Honeywell (Honeywell Global Design Center Brno), Siemens, SGI (CZ headquarters), Red Hat (CZ headquarters), Motorola, etc.
With over 40,000 students, Masaryk University is the largest university in Brno and the second biggest in the Czech Republic. Today, it consists of nine faculties, with more than 190 departments, institutes and clinics. It is one of the most significant institutions for education and research in the Czech Republic and a respected Central European university. The Brno University of Technology was established in 1899. Today with over 20,000 students it ranks among the Czech’s biggest technical universities. Viktor Kaplan, inventor of the Kaplan turbine, spent nearly 30 years at German Technical University in Brno (which ceased to exist in 1945 and its property was transferred to Brno University of Technology). Mendel University, named after the founder of genetics Gregor Mendel who created his revolutionary scientific theories in Brno, has roughly 10,000 students. Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts, named after Leoš Janáček, was founded in 1947 and is one of two academies of music and drama in the Czech Republic. It holds the annual Leoš Janáček Competition.
Culture
The city spends about 30 million euro every year on culture. There are many museums, theatres and other cultural institutions. Brno is also a vibrant university city with about 90,000 students, and a number of festivals and other cultural events.
Since the 1990s Brno has experienced a great cultural “rebirth”: façades of historical monuments are being repaired and various exhibitions, shows, etc., are being established or extended. In 2007 a summit of 15 presidents of the EU Member States was held in Brno. Despite its urban character, some of the city districts still preserve traditional Moravian folklore, including folk festivals with traditional Moravian costumes (cz: kroje), Moravian wines, folk music and dances. Unlike smaller municipalities, in Brno the traditional folk festivals are held locally by city districts: among the city districts where annual traditional Moravian festivals takes place are Židenice, Líšeň, or Ivanovice. Hantec is a unique dialect that originated in Brno.
Transport
Public transport in Brno consists of 12 tram lines, 13 trolleybus lines (the largest trolleybus network in the Czech Republic) and almost 40 day and 11 night bus lines. Trams (sometimes named Šaliny ) have a long tradition in Brno; they first appeared on the streets in 1869; this was the first operation of horse-drawn trams in the current Czech Republic. The local public transport system is interconnected with regional public transport in one integrated system called IDS JMK, and also directly connects several nearby municipalities with the city. Its main operator is the DPmB company (Brno City Transport Company) which also operates a ferry route, mainly recreational, at the Brno Dam Lake. There is a tourist minibus providing a brief tour of the city. The city also plans to build a metro system light rail system to alleviate overcrowding of trams and to reduce the congestion on the surface.
Railway transport started to operate in the city in 1839 on the Brno–Vienna line; this was the first operating railway line in the current Czech Republic. Today’s Brno is a railway junction of supranational importance; for passenger traffic there are nine stations and stops. The current main railway station is the central hub of regional train services; every day about 50,000 passengers use it and 500 trains pass through it; it is currently operating at full capacity. The current main station building is outdated and lacks sufficient operating capacity, but the construction of the new station has been postponed several times for various reasons. A Central station referendum was due on 7 and 8 October 2016, the same day as regional elections.
Road transport makes Brno an international crossroad of highways. There are two motorways on the southern edge of the city, D1 leading to Ostrava and to Prague and D2 leading to Bratislava. Not far from the city limits there is also one expressway, R52, leading to Vienna; another expressway, R43, which will connect Brno to northwestern Moravia, is planned. The city is gradually building the large city ring road (road I/42), several road tunnels were built (Tunnels Pisarky, Husovice, Hlinky and Královopolský) and more tunnels are planned. Also, due to the congestion in private transport the city continues to strive to build more parking ramps including underground ones, but this effort has not always been successful.
Air transport is enabled by two functional airports. One of them is the public international airport Brno-Tuřany Airport. Passenger traffic at this airport has experienced a large increase in recent years, regular flights fly from there to London, Eindhoven and Munich, the airport also serves as one of two bases for police helicopters in the Czech Republic. The other local airport is a small domestic airport serving mainly recreational activities such as flying hot air balloons, gliders or aircraft RC models.
