Exploring the city of Brno

After Slovakia, our plan was to go to Czech Republic and visit a few towns before reaching Prague. Czech Republic is divided into two main regions, Bohemia and Moravia. We chose to stop at a city in Moravia, called Brno. Little did we know that the city of Brno is filled with fascinating legends and stories.

Our Train Journey to Brno

After our journey to the Slovakia’s High Tatras mountains, we took a train to come to Brno in Czech Republic. On the train, we saw a batch of 30 kids (many of them within 10 years of age), boarding the train, wearing colourful dresses and carrying a few props. They were travelling on the train to go to a dance competition (a specific dance form, called ↗ ) in a different city. We were quite in awe to see really young kids, being independent and managing themselves on public transport.

We started our exploration of Brno with a walking tour using the Smart Guide App, and that’s when we made our first surprising discovery - the entire city is built on a vast network of underground tunnels. There is a city underneath Brno! 🤯

Few Interesting Statues in Brno

Water Chambers

Our first stop was the water chambers. These 19th century underground chambers were designed to store the city’s water supply.

As we descended into Brno’s underground water chambers, it felt like stepping into a different world. We were immediately struck by the scale of the place. The arches stretched overhead in perfect symmetry, creating an illusion that we were standing in an endless corridor. It could easily serve as inspiration for a sci-fi movie.

What made this experience even more special was the laser show that was performed in these chambers. As the lights dimmed, the laser beams bounced off the stone arches, creating patterns that danced across the walls and ceiling.

The Bone Church

Another underground chamber, the Bone Church (Brno Ossuary), was an eerie place where the church walls were decorated with skulls and bones that belonged to more than 50,000 people. During the 13th and 14th century, there were many epidemics of plague and cholera and the nearby cemetery space soon became insufficient. The people at that time created a new system, under which existing burials were removed every 10 years and made space for the new burials. The remnants were brought to the church to decorate the walls. Quite an eerie experience!

Brno Ossuary

After exploring the underground spaces, we discovered that Brno’s Old Town square also held a few surprises.

Black Stone Monument

As we were walking through the old town, we noticed something that made us stop in our tracks - a mysterious black stone monument that looked like it belonged in a sci-fi movie. Upon further inspection, we learnt that it was an astronomical clock. Different parts of this black stone structure were slowly rotating, indicating both the current time and date.

Black Stone Monument

But here’s where it gets really interesting - every day at exactly 11 am, this mysterious clock releases a single glass marble from one of its openings, and anyone who happens to be there can take it home as a souvenir.

Our encounter with Silver Spoons

Later that day, we encountered a rock band, called Silver Spoons that was performing music in the middle of the street. We were initially nonchalant, but the music pulled us in towards the band. Within the next half hour, we were on the streets, grooving along with the band, enjoying the music, with drizzling rain falling on our shoulders. The single, ↗ kept playing in our heads for the next two days.

Beyond the modern attractions and underground mysteries, Brno’s history is filled with fascinating legends. Here are a couple of them.

Mystery of the 11 o’ clock bell

During 1645, the Swedish army attacked Brno. Even after multiple days of fighting, the Swedish army could not break through the city’s defences. The Swedish General finally declared that he would withdraw his forces if his army had not won by noon. Knowing this declaration, the bell ringer at Petrov Cathedral in Brno tricked the Swedish general by ringing the bell an hour early. So, keeping to his word, the general and his army left.

As a historical tribute, the bell at Petrov Cathedral still rings an hour earlier at 11 o’ clock.

The legend of Brno Dragon

Another famous legend of this town is about the Brno Dragon. According to this legend, a terrible monster was terrorising the citizens of Brno. The people haven’t seen this monster and imagined it to be a really cruel dragon. They lived in fear for a long time, until a brave citizen managed to kill the monster by tricking it into eating a carcass filled with lime. In reality, the “dragon” was a crocodile. And when you visit Brno, you would find symbols of dragons and crocodiles in a few places, including the Old Town Hall.

We didn’t have a lot of expectations before visiting Brno, but we were pleasantly surprised to see this place filled with legends and underground mysteries. In our next mail, learn about a fairy-tale city of Czech Republic.