Czech Republic · City break

Brno City Guide

In the town hall passage hangs a stuffed crocodile that everyone calls the dragon. The cathedral bells ring noon at eleven, almost 1 km of cellars runs under the Zelný trh market, and Mendel counted his peas in a monastery garden. A ready-made day route leads from the main station to Villa Tugendhat.

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Our walking tours of Brno

Ready-made routes from the station guide you through Brno, to the right spots from the very first step, with no planning needed.

Petrov, Špilberk & Vila Tugendhat

From the main station up to the cathedral on Petrov, whose bells ring noon at eleven. Along Pekařská to the monastery where Gregor Mendel found the rules of heredity, then up to Špilberk, fortress and notorious prison. Downhill to the Zelný trh market with its labyrinth below, through the Old Town Hall with dragon and wheel to Náměstí Svobody and St James's Church above the ossuary. To finish, the tram takes you to Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugendhat.

Katedrála sv. Petra a Pavla. The two 84 m spires are the city's emblem and even appear on the Czech ten-crown coin. They are younger than they look. August Kirstein won the design competition in 1901, the spires went up in 1904 and 1905, and by 1908 the old church had been given its neo-Gothic look. The building itself goes back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and a Romanesque crypt opens at weekends. Listen out at eleven o'clock, when the bells ring noon. Legend has it that in 1645 the Swedish commander Torstenson swore to lift the siege if Brno had not fallen by midday. The defenders rang the bells an hour early and the Swedes marched off. The withdrawal is history, the trick is legend. The city still rings noon at eleven.
Mendelovo muzeum. In this monastery a monk crossed peas from 1856 to 1863 and counted their offspring. Gregor Johann Mendel presented his results to Brno's natural history society in 1865, but they were only taken up around 1900. The Masaryk University museum tells his story, and the garden holds the foundations of his greenhouse from 1854. Queen Elisabeth Richeza founded the abbey in 1323, and her brick basilica stands next door. The place also has a dark side. On the night of 30 to 31 May 1945 the Brno death march set off from the monastery garden. On the orders of the Czech regional national committee, Czech guards and armed workers drove German-speaking residents of Brno, mostly women, children and the elderly, on foot towards the Austrian border. How many died on the way and in the camps that followed is disputed. Estimates range from around 1,700 to more than 5,000 deaths. A memorial stone of 1995 in the abbey courtyard recalls the expulsion of the German population in May 1945.
Hrad Špilberk. Přemysl Otakar II had the castle set on the rock above the town in the mid-13th century. In 1645 it held out with Brno for more than three months against a far larger Swedish army, and afterwards it was rebuilt as a Baroque fortress. Its fame, though, is as a prison. From 1783 Joseph II had the worst criminals locked in the casemates, for a time in chains. Later came political prisoners, among them the Italian poet Silvio Pellico, whose book "Le mie prigioni" made the dungeon known across Europe. In the first year of the German occupation the Nazis held several thousand Czech patriots here. You can walk the casemates without a guide. On the ground floor of the north wing the exhibition "Kasematy válečné" covers the start of the war and the air raids on Brno from 1944 to 1945.
Zelný trh & Labyrint. Trading has gone on in this sloping square since the 13th century. It was first called the Upper Market and from the 15th century the Cabbage Market, and for part of the year stalls still sell fruit, vegetables and flowers here. The market was also a place of justice, with a pillory and a cage for criminals. In the middle stands the Parnas fountain, designed by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and built from 1693 to 1695. The most interesting part lies 8 m below the paving. Almost 1 km of passages and cellars runs beneath the square. Traders stored their goods here, and in wartime residents sheltered underground. The labyrinth was rebuilt in 2009 and has been open for guided tours since 2011.
Stará radnice. The Old Town Hall is considered the city's oldest secular building, with beginnings in the 13th century. The council met here until 1935. Look first at the Gothic portal, made by Anton Pilgram from 1510 to 1511. Its middle pinnacle is bent. Legend says the master mason took his revenge this way on councillors who had not paid him as agreed. In the passage behind hang Brno's two emblems. The "dragon" is a stuffed crocodile, recorded as early as 1568. The wheel is said to have been made in a single day in 1636 by the wheelwright Georg Birk and rolled all the way from Lednice to Brno to win a bet. The wheel on show, however, came from a workshop and is not carved from one piece of wood. 173 steps lead up the tower.
Náměstí Svobody. The main square grew up in the 13th century as the Lower Market where three trade routes met, which explains its triangular shape. On the east side stands the black block everyone calls the orloj, even though it is not an astronomical clock. The column of black South African stone, just under 6 m tall, is shaped like a bullet and recalls the Swedish siege of 1645. Rotating stone sections at the top show the time, and reading it is an art in itself. Every day at eleven a glass marble rolls into one of four openings, and whoever catches it may keep it. Since its unveiling in 2010 locals have argued over its cost and its shape, which has earned some earthy nicknames. The same square holds the plague column of 1679 and a fountain inscribed with verses by the poet Jan Skácel.
Kostel sv. Jakuba & Kostnice. St James's is first mentioned in 1228 and began as the church of German, Flemish and Walloon settlers. Today's late Gothic hall church dates from the 15th and 16th centuries, and its tower is 92 m tall. Look at the south window on the tower's first floor, the one facing Náměstí Svobody. A small stone figure there is sticking its bare bottom out towards Petrov. Locals say St James's was celebrating its win in the contest for the taller tower. That reading can only date from the 20th century, though, as the present Petrov spires are younger than the figure. Behind the high altar stands the tomb of Raduit de Souches, who led the defence in 1645. Beneath the church square lies the ossuary of the old graveyard, rediscovered during excavations in 2001. It is estimated to hold the bones of around 50,000 people, and the city calls it the second largest in Europe after the Paris catacombs.
Vila Tugendhat. From the street the house looks like a low single-storey building. Only inside do you notice it steps three floors down the slope. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe designed it in 1928 for Grete and Fritz Tugendhat, both from Jewish textile families, and it was built in 14 months by the end of 1930. Steel columns carry the open living area, two of the huge glass panes could be lowered electrically into the floor, and the onyx wall glows with light in the evening sun. The family left the country in 1938, fearing a German occupation, and in 1939 the Gestapo seized the house. Parts of the Macassar ebony wall turned up decades later in the former Gestapo canteen at the law faculty. On 26 August 1992 the agreement to divide Czechoslovakia was signed here. The villa has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.

Planning your visit

One full day is enough. The route starts at the main station, has eight stops and covers 5.3 km on foot, with a tram ride to Villa Tugendhat. Its interior needs a pre-booked time slot, so plan the day around it. Short on time? Skip the Mendel Museum and Špilberk and stay between Petrov and St James's. Brno is a city of legends, and plenty of them fall apart once you check. Lednice and Valtice are worth a day of their own, and there are four tips for the evening.

Going out & nightlife

Nightlife quarters

Jakubské náměstí. Locals call the square around St James's Church Jakubák, and in the evening it is the easiest meeting point in the old town. A few steps away are the Pegas brewpub on Jakubská and the bars of Dvořákova, among them a wine bar and the Bar That Doesn't Exist. Under the paving lies the ossuary you visited by day.

Food & restaurants

Pivnice Pegas. The brewpub has been brewing since 1992 in a 14th-century townhouse right next to St James's Church. During the conversion builders found a coin die from the reign of King Wenceslas II, now in the Moravian Museum. The brewhouse stands in the ground-floor beer hall, and the house beer is served unfiltered and unpasteurised.

Bars & clubs

Bar, který neexistuje. The name translates as "the bar that doesn't exist", yet this cocktail bar is on the city tourism portal's list of bars. It sits on Dvořákova, a little over 100 m from St James's Church. If you can't decide, let the bartender surprise you. At weekends it stays open deep into the night, and booking is worthwhile.

Stage & concerts

Mahenovo divadlo. When the house opened as the German municipal theatre on 14 November 1882, the auditorium was lit by Thomas Edison's electric bulbs, an invention then only three years old. Edison's laboratory in New Jersey helped design the system. After 1918 the Czech company took over, and since 1965 the theatre has carried the name of the dramatist Jiří Mahen. Today it belongs to the National Theatre Brno.

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Practical information for Brno

Public transport

Operator. The municipal transport company Dopravní podnik města Brna, a.s. (DPMB) runs trams, trolleybuses and buses in Brno. All lines are part of the Integrated Transport System of the South Moravian Region (IDS JMK), which is organised by the company KORDIS JMK, a.s. A common fare applies to urban transport in Brno and eight other towns, to regional buses and to the trains in the system. A Brno ticket is therefore also valid on the suburban trains within the city zones, with the exception of SMS tickets and app tickets from DPMB. During the boating season DPMB also operates electric boats on the Brněnská přehrada reservoir between Bystrc and Veverská Bítýška, a little under 10 km in 70 minutes, with its own boat fare.

Network. Trams, trolleybuses and buses, and at night eleven bus lines from the main station. Hlavní nádraží, Zelný trh and Náměstí Svobody are only four minutes apart on tram line 4.

Modes of transport. Tram · Trolleybus · Bus · Night bus · Suburban train (trains within the system) · Boat (summer)

Operating hours. One example is tram line 4, which runs between Babická and Náměstí Míru via Hlavní nádraží, Zelný trh and Náměstí Svobody. On weekdays the first tram leaves Babická at 4.48am, then comes every 5 to 7 minutes during the day and every 10 to 15 minutes in the evening, and the last journeys end around 11pm. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays service starts at 4.54am, and during the day the line runs every 10 minutes. Airport line 21 runs on weekdays from Hlavní nádraží from 5.08am to 10.35pm and at weekends from 7.35am to 10.35pm. From 11pm the night buses N89 to N99 run instead of the daytime lines.

Night service. Eleven bus lines, N89 to N99, run at night in Brno. They all depart at the same time from the Hlavní nádraží interchange and wait for one another there, in a system called Rozjezdy. Every night there are departures at 11pm and 11.30pm, at midnight and at 12.30am, 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am and 5am. On nights before a working day there is an extra departure at 4.30am, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays the buses also run at 5.30am, 6am, 6.30am and 7am. Line N89 links Hlavní nádraží with the airport terminal in around 20 minutes, and it stops at the main station at stand 4. On nights before a non-working day IDS JMK night trains also leave the main station for the region at 12.05am and 12.08am.

Buying tickets. Trams, trolleybuses and city buses have readers by the doors for contactless Visa and Mastercard cards, also with Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also buy reduced fares, tickets for fellow passengers and journeys beyond the city zones there. Paper tickets are sold by machines at selected stops, at DPMB sales points (for example Novobranská 18, Monday to Friday from 7am to 6pm) and at kiosks. At the main station there are two machines that accept cards (towards Pisárky and towards Řečkovice), and only these machines also sell the 5-day and 14-day tickets. You validate paper tickets on board, and they become valid from the stamp. SMS tickets and app tickets must have arrived on your phone before you board, otherwise you risk a fine at an inspection.

App and payment. With Pípni a jeď you hold your card against the reader every time you board, including when you change. The first check-in costs 25 crowns and is valid for 60 minutes or until the terminus of the vehicle you last boarded within that hour. If you tap your card again when getting off within 15 minutes, you pay 20 crowns. The system caps a day's journeys at 90 crowns and settles the charges overnight between 3am and 4am. Pípni a jeď is valid only in zones 100 and 101 and always charges the full price. For reduced fares you choose "Další jízdenky" on the device. Always use the same device, because a phone and a watch count as two cards. In the DPMBinfo app there are tickets for zones 100 and 101, paid by card, for 19 crowns (20 minutes), 24 crowns (40 minutes), 29 crowns (75 minutes) and 99 crowns (24 hours), and for children under 15, 12 crowns (40 minutes). SMS tickets cost 20, 29 and 99 crowns and need a Czech SIM card. With credit topped up beforehand in IDS JMK POSEIDON the 60-minute ticket costs 22 instead of 25 crowns, and a 45-minute ticket for zones 100 and 101 costs 19.50 crowns. SMS tickets and tickets from DPMBinfo are not valid on trains, but POSEIDON tickets are.

Which ticket. In Brno zones 100 and 101 a paper ticket for 2 zones is valid for 15 minutes (20 crowns, reduced 10 crowns) or 60 minutes (25 crowns, reduced 12 crowns), and changing is allowed. For 3 zones and 90 minutes you pay 33 crowns. The ticket for 8 journeys of up to 45 minutes each costs 156 crowns, so 19.50 crowns per journey. The 24-hour ticket for zones 100 and 101 costs 90 crowns (reduced 45 crowns), the price of 3.6 journeys at 25 crowns. On non-working days it is valid for up to 5 people, of whom at most 2 may be over 15. The 5-day ticket costs 250 crowns, the 14-day ticket 420 crowns. Children under 6 travel free when accompanied, and in zones 100 and 101 so do children under 10 with official proof of age, as well as people aged 70 and over with ID. Children aged 10 to 14 travel at the reduced fare. For young people aged 15 to 18, students under 26 and people over 65, the reduction does not apply to journeys that stay entirely within zones 100 and 101 on city lines 1 to 99.

Fare zones. IDS JMK has a zone and time-based fare system. The city area of Brno consists of zones 100 and 101. Every ticket for Brno is valid for both zones together, and the smallest ticket is the one for 2 zones. Hlavní nádraží is in zone 100, and Brno-Tuřany airport is still in zone 101. At the Brněnská přehrada reservoir and at some stops on the edge of the city the suburban zones already begin. If you go, for example, by tram to Modřice, by trolleybus to Šlapanice or by bus to Veveří Castle, you buy a ticket for more zones, such as 4 zones for 90 minutes at 41 crowns for the journey from Hlavní nádraží to Veverská Bítýška. With a 24-hour ticket for Brno a supplement for each additional zone is enough, 19 crowns per zone.

Tip. If you plan several journeys in a day, just hold your bank card against the reader. The system never charges more than 90 crowns for a day, which equals the 24-hour ticket, without you having to plan ahead.

Getting there

Main station

Location. Brno hlavní nádraží is close to the city centre, and the historic centre is about 10 minutes away on foot. Right by the station is the Hlavní nádraží interchange, where tram and trolleybus lines from all over the city stop. From here tram line 4 runs to Zelný trh in 2 minutes and to Náměstí Svobody in 4 minutes. Airport line 21 stops at stand 11 in the trolleybus loop, and the night buses leave from stand 4. DPMB publishes a plan of the interchange separately for day and night.

Long-distance trains. Brno hlavní nádraží is the city's long-distance station and belongs to zone 100 of IDS JMK. To Prague, railjet and EuroCity trains run hourly during the day and stop only twice on the way, and the journey takes around 2.5 hours. The Svitava fast trains take about 3 hours via the larger towns and the Vysočina fast trains about 3.5 hours via Kutná Hora, and both also run hourly. Between Prague, Brno and Vienna, railjet and ComfortJet trains run all day every two hours without a change, and selected trains continue from Vienna via Graz and Klagenfurt to Villach. Tickets from Brno to Vienna are available from ČD from 223 crowns or €9. RegioJet offers four trains a day from Prague via Brno to Vienna and three in the other direction. There are also night services to Vienna. In the station there are IDS JMK ticket machines and validators for IDS tickets, and at the ČD counters you can pay by card and in euros. Coaches do not stop at the station but at the bus station u hotelu Grand, around 450 m north-east as the crow flies.

Opening hours. The passenger areas and the national and international ČD ticket counters are open daily from 2.45am to 12.50am, and closed at night from 12.50am to 2.45am. Left luggage is open daily from 6.30am to midday, from 12.30pm to 1.45pm, from 2pm to 6pm and from 6.30pm to 9pm. The ČD Lounge waiting room is open from 6am to 9pm, and the ČD currency exchange from 6am to 9pm with breaks. The wheelchair-accessible toilet with a Euro key can be used from 4am to 11pm. The IDS JMK ticket machines (KORDIS JMK) operate around the clock. The station also has a cash machine, a snack bar and a taxi rank nearby.

Airports

BRQ

Into the city. The airport is in fare zone 101, so the normal Brno ticket is valid. Line 21 runs from the stop Letiště Tuřany, terminál to the main station without a change and takes around 22 minutes. On weekdays it leaves the terminal from 5.03am to 10.10pm, every 20 minutes during the day and every 30 minutes in the evening. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays it runs from 7.10am to 10.10pm, every 20 minutes from 9am. Line 77 runs less often and at irregular intervals, in around 26 minutes to the stop Úzká opposite the Galerie Vaňkovka. At night the N89 links the terminal with Hlavní nádraží every 30 to 60 minutes in around 20 minutes. Since the journey takes longer than 15 minutes, you need the ticket for 2 zones and 60 minutes at 25 crowns. You buy it contactless at the reader on board, as a mobile ticket, at the paper ticket machine in the arrivals hall or at the TIC Brno tourist information centre at the airport. A suitcase larger than 20 × 30 × 50 cm needs its own reduced ticket at 12 crowns.

VIE

Into the city. You can reach Brno without a change on RegioJet buses. They run every day from Vienna Airport (Schwechat) via Wien Hauptbahnhof (Südtiroler Platz) to the stop "Brno - AN u hotelu Grand", and tickets cost from 299 crowns. The RegioJet line from Vienna Airport to Kraków also stops in Brno. By train you first take the railjet to Wien Hauptbahnhof and change there to the train to Brno. According to the airport this takes 2 hours 3 minutes, with a connection every two hours. With four RegioJet trains a day from Prague via Brno to Vienna and three in the other direction, you can change at Wien Hauptbahnhof to the ÖBB train to the airport, and RegioJet sends the ticket for the connecting train by email. FlixBus also runs between Vienna Airport and Brno.

PRG

Into the city. Direct buses to Brno depart from outside Terminal 1, under the flyover to Terminal 2. RegioJet buses towards Brno stop there in both directions, and a ticket to Prague Airport or from there to Brno costs 599 crowns (price list from 5 May 2026), with children aged 6 to 12 paying half. FlixBus runs on line 854 from Karlovy Vary via Prague to Brno and stops at the same place. By rail, you first take the Airport Express (AE) to Praha hlavní nádraží. It runs around the clock every 20 to 30 minutes, hourly at night, takes around 40 minutes and costs 200 crowns, or 100 crowns for children aged 6 to 15. Tickets are available from the driver (cards accepted) and at the Visitor Centre in the arrivals halls, and normal Prague public transport tickets are not valid. From the main station railjet and EuroCity trains run hourly during the day to Brno in around 2.5 hours. With the ČD ticket Vlak + letiště the journey on the Airport Express is included in the price.

Local quirks

Many stops on request only. In the timetables many stops are marked (z), where the vehicle stops all day only on request. At stops marked (x) this applies on weekdays from 7pm to 6am and at weekends all day. To get off you press the stop button once, holding it slightly longer, and to get on you stand where the driver can see you in good time. In many vehicles you open the door yourself with a button.
Large suitcase, separate ticket. You may only take hand luggage up to 20 × 30 × 50 cm free of charge. Larger suitcases up to 50 × 60 × 80 cm and 50 kg need a reduced ticket, which in Brno costs 12 crowns for 60 minutes. If you have a ticket for 2 or more days for zones 100 and 101, you can take such a suitcase for free.
Weekend day ticket for the family. The 24-hour ticket for zones 100 and 101 at the base price of 90 crowns is valid on non-working days for up to five people, of whom at most two may be over 15. Two adults with three children therefore travel around Brno for a whole day on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays for 90 crowns.

Good to know

Currency: CZK Kč
Emergency number: 112
Plug type: C · E
Time zone: Europe/Prague
Driving: right

Speed limits. built-up areas 50 km/h, outside towns 90 km/h, motorway 130 km/h

Alongside the motorway there's the expressway, where 110 km/h is allowed. On motorway sections with structurally separated carriageways, signs may permit up to 150 km/h. Where a motorway runs through a town, only 80 km/h applies there. Snow chains limit speed to 50 km/h everywhere.

Tipping. Ten percent, stating the total when you pay.

Tolls. Motorways and expressways require a vignette. It is digital and sold online or at petrol stations.