AJ In the footsteps of the famed - Centrála cestovního ruchu – Jižní

AJ In the footsteps of the famed - Centrála cestovního ruchu – Jižní

In the footsteps
of the famed
In the footsteps
of the famed
The South Moravian region was the home or place of work
of a number of successful personalities from various areas.
Notable artists, men of science, politicians and many other
personalities of outstanding quality and fame resided
here; here they worked and lived out their everyday highs
and lows.
Their names are important for the memory of this beautiful
land and for the people who live here right now. Let us bring
to mind some personalities which we, as South Moravians,
are proud of. Personalities whose statues have been erected as an expression of our gratitude; many streets, squares,
universities, theatres have been named after them, exhibitions are dedicated to them, their books are being published and scientific meetings about them are held.
So let us set out in the footsteps of our famous natives and
ancestors and on this wandering let us try to bring back to
life the stories and fates of those who had lived them out.
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Jan Amos Komenský
(COMENIUS)
Philosopher, pedagogue, and theologian of world renown is
one of the most significant natives of South Moravia. He was
born on March 28, 1592, as the youngest of five children of
Martin Komenský and his wife Anna. The question of his exact birthplace has still not been definitively answered. Some
materials speak in favour of Uherský Brod, yet other suggest
Nivnice. Komňa is the original location from which the Komenský family descended and from where it took its name.
Another item on the list of South Moravian towns where he
was actively involved is Strážnice. He moved here at the age of
twelve already as an orphan because both his parents died in
Uherský Brod in 1604 during a very short time span. Young Komenský (Comenius) lived with his aunt Zuzana Nohálová and
in 1605, he is known to have attended the Unity of the Brethren
school in Strážnice. From here he undertook his first journey to
receive education of a European level. He returned to Moravia
after the completion of his studies and he was ordained a priest
in Žeravice in the Kyjov Region. Soon however his life was to
become a fragile boat in stormy waters of the Thirty Years‘ War.
At its outbreak, Jan Amos Komenský lived in Fulnek. His wife
Magdalena Vizovská and their two small sons passed away
very early on. Komenský took refuge in the estate of Charles
the Elder of Žerotín in Brandýs nad Orlicí. However, the days
that he would still spend in his native country were inexorably numbered. He left the country in 1628 and he was never
to come back.
In the footsteps of J. A. Komenský in South Moravia
Museum of Jan Amos Komenský in Uherský Brod
Memorial of Jan Amos Komenský in Žeravice
Memorial of Jan Amos Komenský in Komňa
Bartek‘s mill in Nivnice
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Eliška Rejčka
One of the most noteworthy figures in Bohemian and Moravian history, the Czech Queen Alžběta (Eliška) Rejčka is buried under the floor in the Basilica Minor in Staré Brno, under
the spot marked with an “E” and the symbol of the royal
crown.
Eliška was born on the first day of September in 1288 to
Przemysl II Velkopolsky (of Greater Poland) and the Swedish princess Luitgard Richeza, known in Polish as “Ryksa”. At
that time seventeen-year-old Wenceslaus II had assumed
the reign of the Czech Lands. When Wenceslaus II became a
widower in 1297 he was offered the hand of the then nineyear-old Polish princess Eliška.
To live with a man 17 years her senior was not easy at all
for her, especially since three of Wenceslaus’s five children
were almost the same age as her. Almost five years after
their wedding King Wenceslaus II died at thirty-four. Six days
before his death a daughter, Anežka, was born to the notquite seventeen-year-old Rejčka. Wenceslaus III, the son of
Wenceslaus II, inherited the royal Czech crown from his father. However, after a mere year in power he was murdered
in Olomouc.
Rudolph of Habsburg soon gained power after him. The
Bohemian nobility accepted him as king on the condition
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that he wed the twenty-year-old Queen Dowager Eliška,
who would then confer a claim of inheritance to the Polish
crown. No sooner than nine months after the wedding Eliška
found herself as a widow again – Rudolph died at the Siege
of Horažďovice in a campaign against the Bohemian lords
who refused to swear to him. The nobility elected Henry IV
of Carinthia as king.
A fateful love affair with a powerful man in the kingdom,
Jindřich of Lipá, brought the Queen Dowager Eliška Rejčka
to Moravia. When he was nominated Moravian hetman, she
moved with him in 1320 to Brno.
Queen Rejčka’s and Jindřich’s love affair lasted the next ten
years. In Brno they arranged for a home which was even
more beautiful than the court at Prague. In May 1323 she
founded the Cistercian Convent of Aula Sanctae Mariae
(The Hall of Saint Mary) at the Church of St. Mary in Staré
Brno. Her old admirer, John of Luxemburg, contributed significantly to financing its construction. The construction of
the convent lasted almost 50 years; Rejčka did not live to see
its completion. Jindřich of Lipá died in 1329 and three years
later (1332) Eliška left to the convent that she established,
and lived another 6 years after the passing of her lover, companion, friend and protector. She left all of her property to
the convent, including a set of rare illuminated manuscripts,
of which three have been preserved and are stored in the
Museum of Literature in Moravia - Muzeum Brněnska and
the Moravian Museum. The convent was later transferred to
the Order of Augustinian Hermits. One of the friars there was
Johan Gregor Mendel, the founder of genetics. Composer
Leoš Janáček was also active there.
In the footsteps of Eliška Rejčka in South Moravia
The Augustinian Abbey and the Basilica of the Assumption
of the Virgin Mary (Brno)
House of the Lords of Lipá, Brno, náměstí Svobody Square
Muzeum Brněnska – Museum of Literature in Moravia
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Cardinal
Franz von Dietrichstein
The name of this notable, yet controversial figure of the 17th
century events can be encountered at numerous locations
throughout central and southern Moravia. At the age of five,
František moved with his parents from Madrid to Mikulov.
Franz von Dietrichstein, a key figure of the recatholicisation
effort in Moravia, including its violent form, tended his family‘s estates in an exemplary way and he was even minting
his own currency in Kroměříž. He unwittingly merits credit
for the scenic character of the typical Mikulov skyline because he erected the chapel and the Calvary to the Tanzberk
Hill, the present Svatý kopeček Hill. The construction was an
expression of gratitude for overcoming the plague epidemic
of 1622.
A distinct monument reminding of the Dietrichstein family
is their family tomb which today encloses the eastern side
of the Mikulov Square. The local châteaux belonged to the
Dietrichstein family until WWII. Mikulov became the factual
capital of Moravia after Cardinal Dietrichstein, in the position of Olomouc bishop, moved his seat here.
Brno, too, did not get a raw deal from the cardinal‘s fame.
Between the years 1614 and 1620, the Moravian vicegerent
built himself an Early Baroque palace, the present seat of the
Moravian Land Museum. The respectable building hosted
Friedrich von der Pfalz, “The Winter King,” the empress Maria
Theresa in 1748, and before the battle of Austerlitz in October of 1805, also the Russian military commander Kutuzov.
In the footsteps of Cardinal Franz von Ditrichstein in South Moravia
Dietrichstein family tomb in Mikulov
Mikulov Châteaux
Svatý kopeček Hill in Mikulov
Dietrichstein Palace in Zelný trh Square, Brno
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Václav Antonín Kounic
Outstanding politician and statesman, Václav Antonín Kounic came from a prominent family of Moravian aristocracy.
He became famous as minister and diplomat in the services
of Empress Maria Theresa. He held complicated diplomatic
and political negotiations with Bavaria, Saxony and Prussia
in defence of Maria Theresa’s legacy. In 1753 when he came
back to Vienna from his last diplomatic mission in Paris,
Count Kounic was appointed Chancellor. He was the maker
of Austria’s foreign politics oriented to powerful France.
Václav Antonín Prince of Kounice was also renowned as
a patron and supporter of arts. He died on 27 June 1794 and
his remains were laid to rest in the family vault under the
Church of St. John the Baptist in Slavkov near Brno.
JUDr. Václav Count Kounic
JUDr. Václav Count Kounic belongs to the most important
members of the Czech branch of the Kounic family. He was a
Czech liberal politician who fought for better working conditions for the working class and for universal suffrage. His brother-in-law was Antonín Dvořák, great Czech music composer.
After the death of his elder brother Albrecht he inherited the
estates of Slavkov and Uherský Brod. On the occasion of his
second wedding on 12 May 1908 he donated the Kounic Palace
in Brno to Czech students. Income from this extensive building was used to build the Kounic students’ residence in BrnoŽabovřesky.
In the footsteps of the Kounic family in South Moravia
Chateau and Museum, Slavkov near Brno
Church of the Resurrection of Our Lord – Classicist building from 1789,
Slavkov near Brno
Vault of the Kounic family, Slavkov near Brno
Kounic student residence, Králova Street 45, Brno
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Jobst of Moravia
Jobst of Moravia, Moravian margrave from the Luxembourg dynasty and the nephew of the legendary Czech king
Charles IV reached the topmost point of his career in the autumn of 1410 when he became the king of the Holy Roman
Empire. However, he could enjoy his new title only for mere
few weeks since he died in the early 1411. Owing to this unexpected stroke of fate, the City of Brno lost an opportunity
of radically increasing its significance since it was very likely
that Jobst would govern the Holy Roman Empire precisely
from the Moravian metropolis. As a matter of fact, he made
the Brno Špilberk castle his margrave seat already at the
outset of his career.
Jobst was a very capable and deft politician who ambitiously desired more power and property and who did not
waver over whether to switch sides or change his mind if his
objectives were at stake. He had to share the administration
of Moravia with his youngest brother Prokop which was the
cause of protracted conflicts that ended only with Prokop‘s
death in 1405.
With the help of his cousin Sigismund of Luxembourg he acquired part of the present western Slovakia, including Bratislava. Jobst became also the margrave of Brandenburg,
administrated the County of Luxembourg and the imperial
Vogtei of Alsace. He was a competent manager and he reopened the Brno minting mill that produced his own coins
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for the entire period of his rule, including a limited emission
of ducats. As far as Brno itself is concerned, he helped lift the
city‘s appearance (paving) by collecting ingenious tallages
and by inviting the famous master builder from Gmünd – Peter Parler. Even today, Brno continues to live on the foundations laid by the Moravian Luxembourgs (urbanistic disposition of the city, the St. Peter and Paul‘s Cathedral (Petrov)
and St. James‘ Church, the premises of the St. Thomas and
Královo Pole monasteries, reconstruction of the Špilberk and
Veveří castles).
Jobst was quickly expanding his property and political power. In 1410, he stood as a candidate in the elections for the
king of the Holy Roman Empire against Sigismund that he
won in the second round. He could nonetheless relish the title of Roman king only briefly, between October 1, 1410, and
January 18, 1411, when he deceased at the Brno Špilberk
castle.
Jobst of Luxembourg, margrave of Moravia and Brandenburg, was interred in the Church of St. Thomas on February
20, 1411.
The statue by Jan Leonard Weber dating back to the 1840s
in the frontispiece of the Governor‘s Palace in the Moravian
Square depicts Jobst of Moravia in an idealized form. One
of the principle streets in the Brno city centre carries Jobst‘s
name.
In the footsteps of Jobst of Moravia in South Moravia
St. Thomas‘ Church in Brno
Špilberk Castle
Governor‘s Palace in Moravské náměstí Square (former Augustinian monastery)
in Brno
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Jean-Louis
Raduit de Souches
One of the most able commanders of the Thirty Years’
War, Raduit de Souches as a protestant first fought on the
side of the Huguenots near his hometown La Rochelle. He
then left France and joined the Swedish army. He disagreed
with his seniors and eventually left the army and joined the
Hapsburgs of Austria (1642). In March 1645 Emperor Ferdinand III appointed him commander of Brno. Under his command the garrison in Brno numbering only 1500 men (only
one third of them were actual soldiers) indeed squared the
circle when they successfully resisted the 28,000-man troops
of General Torstenson (the siege lasted from 3 May to 23
August 1645). In the wake of this great success his carrier
soared. He was appointed commander of Moravia and Brno
and was allowed to purchase the Jevišovice na Znojemsku
demesne (1649). In this region he then purchased the redoubt in Boskovštejn (1670) and in 1679 the Castle in Plaveč.
In 1663 he was honoured with the title Count.
Raduit did not rely only on the income from the estate as was
the custom in his native France, but he started doing business. In the 1670’s he had a blast furnace and three hammer
mills built in Jevišovce where soft iron and bombs for the
army were manufactured. He made use of his business skill
in Hluboké Mašůvky as well. For a long time the place had
been famous for its curative springs. Raduit decided to build
a watering place and he built an inn and a new church. To
bring more visitors to the place he made the church a present
of a rare statuette of Our Lady de Foi.
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He spent the end of his life at his extensive estates in Moravia. Count Jean Louis Raduit de Souches lived to the age of
nearly 74 years and passed away at his Chateau in Jevišovice
on 12 August 1682. In accordance with his last will his remains were buried in Saint James’ Church in Brno. His tomb
is adorned by a bronze statue of the kneeling marshal and
on the tomb are carved Jean Louis de Souches’s most important military campaigns. Raduit’s body is buried in a copper
coffin in the sepulchre under the church.
Another memorial to the famous marshal can be seen at the
Jevišovice Chateau – the coat-of-arms under the arcade in
the courtyard. The stone tablet bears two coats-of-arms. The
one on the right-hand side belongs to Raduit de Souches and
the one on the left to his first wife Anna Elisabeth. Hluboké
Mašůvky is the second place where the coat-of-arms of Raduit and his wife can be seen, this time the coat-of-arms of
his second wife Anna Salome.
A monument to the successful defender of Brno is his bust
in the park on the Špilberk slopes – to the right of the main
entrance route.
In the footsteps of Raduit de Souches in South Moravia
Saint James’ Church (Brno)
House of the Lords of Lipá (Brno)
Petrov, Brno – stone coat-of-arms in the wall near the entrance to the Bishop’s
residence and stone memorial tablet in the form of a cartouche on the house
Petrov No. 6
Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Hluboké Mašůvky)
Jevišovice – chateau and museum (Jevišovice)
Špilberk – castle and museum (Brno)
Boskovštejn, chateau
Plaveč, castle
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Karel Lichtenstein
In his times second only to the emperor in the Czech Lands
after the Battle on the White Mountain, Karel Lichtenstein
was a contradictory figure. On the one hand his name is
associated with the execution of twenty-seven Czech lords
as he put his signature on the verdict; he also saw to the
exodus of the Pro-testant clerical elite, including Jan Amos
Komenský. To some extent he was an opportunist. On the
other hand his success in the area of politics, diplomacy and
economy is highly visible. It was actually Karel who stood
at the birth of the power of the Lichtenstein family; in their
golden age they where the most powerful aristocratic family
in the country.
Even after the era of Prince Karel the members of the family, loyal to the Habsburgs, occupied leading positions in the
Danube monarchy and, among others, as generals they became involved in waging warfare against Napoleon. A mark
of their success is for instance the remarkable Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape. For centuries the Liechtenstein family had created a landscape complex surrounding both chateaux. In 1996 the Lednice-Valtice landscape complex was
entered in UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list. In Vranov
near Brno the family vault of the Counts of Liechtenstein was
built which the Liechtenstein family visit on a regular basis;
since 1709 their coat-of-arms has been the sovereign emblem of their Principality in the Alps. They remain to be only
visitors to the Czech Republic – in 1945 the Liechtenstein
property in the Czech Lands was confiscated and the family
emigrated.
In the footsteps of the Lichtenstein family in South Moravia
Lednice-Valtice area
Burial vault of the Lichtenstein family, Vranov u Brna
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Silvio Pellico
This Italian poet, playwright, novelist and journalist (1789–
1854) was imprisoned in Brno in Špilberk Castle. He was put
there for being convicted of being active in the secret patriotic revolutionary society of the Carbonari, who struggled
for the liberation of Italy from foreign domination. After the
Napoleonic Wars, Italy remained a fragmented country, in
which power was divided between France and Austria. Essentially Austrian prince Metternich guided the fate of Italy.
Pellico, the well-known literary figure, was arrested in October 1820 and immediately afterwards was sentenced to
death for his participation in a conspiracy against Austria.
At the last minute his sentence was commuted by imperial
decree to 15 years of hard time in Špilberk Prison. Prisoners there experienced cruel times; their legs were bound in
chains and they endured cold and hunger. On the basis of
an imperial pardon Pellico was released after eight years of
great suffering in Špilberk Prison. He described his experiences in the Austrian jail in his book My Prisons.
The prison time spent by the Carbonari in Brno’s Špilberk
is commemorated by a commemorative plaque dating to
1922 on the castle walls close to the entrance to the casemates, and by a memorial to the Italian martyrs built on the
base of Špilberk in 1925 by the committee of the Brno Dante
Alighieri Society. Špilberk is thus a popular pilgrimage spot
for Italian tourists who visit Brno. A street in Staré Brno is
named after Pellico, the most famous Carbonari prisoner.
In the footsteps of Silvio Pellico in South Moravia
The Brno City Museum, Špilberk Castle – commemorative plaque, memorial,
and the Silvio Pellico Commemorative Cell
Pellicova Street, Brno
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Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the most important character
in modern Czech history, the first Czechoslovak president,
Czech philosopher, teacher, politician, scientist, writer and
journalist, has his roots in South Moravia.
Masaryk was born in Hodonín on March 7, 1850. His mother
Terezie Kropáčková came from a German-speaking family,
and his father Jozef Masárik from a Slovak-speaking one.
Masaryk’s father was a coachman on the imperial estates in
the Hodonín region and thus the family often moved. Thus,
Tomáš Masaryk’s childhood was connected to the Moravian
Slovak towns of Čejkovice, Hodonín, Mutěnice and Klobouky
u Brna.
He came to Čejkovice in 1856 as a six-year-old boy; he went
to school and spent six years of his life there. In 1933 a commemorative plaque was installed on the house in which the
Masaryks lived. Inside the house there is a permanent exhibit-ion about Masaryk’s life.
After studying for two years at the Piarist School in Hustopeče
the fifteen-year-old Tomáš Masaryk started the second year
of study at the German Grammar School in Brno. A plaque
commemorating the fact that he attended the school in
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Hustopeče from 1861 to 1863 was unveiled on the school’s
façade in 1994. His parents are buried in the Hustopeče cemetery. His brother Ludvík Masaryk owned a printing press in
Hustopeče between 1880 and 1889 and published the Auspitzer Wochenblatt.
The young Masaryk financed his studies in Brno to a large
extent by himself. The spectacular building of the Brno German Grammar School on Komenského náměstí Square is
today the home of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts. As a student Masaryk lived in three places in
Brno. At first he lived at 12 Velká Nová Street (today Lidická
Street), then at 153 Neufröhlichergasse Street (today Česká
Street) and during the last year of his studies in Brno the then
nineteen-year-old student Masaryk rented a room at 28
Franz-Josef-Strasse Street (today Milady Horákové Street).
In 1869 Masaryk left Brno for Vienna.
Masaryk entered political and social life during the Austrian
monarchy. During World War I he organized the anti-Austrian revolt leading to the establishment of an independent
Czechoslovak Republic. In 1878 Masaryk married American
Charlotte Garrigue. T.G. Masaryk visited Brno several times
as president of Czechoslovakia. His visit to the Moravian
capital city and the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture at
the Brno Exhibition Center in 1928 was important.
During the era of his presidency he was a frequent guest in
Moravia, particularly in Židlochovice. He visited the local
palace, which became the official presidential residence in
Moravia, a total of six times. Masaryk resigned due to old
age in 1935.
In the footsteps of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in South Moravia
The Masaryk Museum, Hodonín, Zámecké náměstí Square
Židlochovice, palace, presidential residence
Hustopeče, Vocational High School, formerly the Piarist School, Masarykovo
náměstí Square
T. G. Masaryk House, Čejkovice
The Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University – Brno
Botanical Garden
Commemorative plaque, Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts,
Komenského náměstí Square 6/04. He studied at grammar school here.
The Masaryk Tower of Independence – museum and look-out tower, Hořice
Town Museum and Gallery. Hustopeče
Residences in Brno:
- 12 Velká Nová Street (1865, today 4 Lidická Street),
- 153 Neufröhlichergasse (in the school year 1866/1867, today 14 Česká Street),
- Commemorative plaque, former Franz-Josef-Strasse Street, (school year
1868/1869, today 28 Milady Horákové Street)
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Napoleon Bonaparte
One of the most important military commanders of world
history, the French emperor Napoleon I, left many imprints
during his military campaigns across Moravia. Not only memorials at the battlefields, folklore inspired by the battle of
Austerlitz, or the tradition of recreating the battle scenes, but
also the wide range of French surnames made Czech which
the soldiers who did not return home with their famous
commander and settled in Moravia left behind.
Two of Napoleon’s military campaigns were very important
for Moravia – the first in 1805 which culminated in the famous Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the
Three Emperors, and the second in 1809 which was the aftermath of another victorious battle of the French army at
Wagram.
In November 1805 Napoleon set foot in Moravia when he
was chasing the Austrian troops and the Russian army under the command of General Kutuzov. After the victorious
battle in Hollabrunn in Lower Austria, Napoleon arrived in
Znojmo where he took lodgings in Ugart’s Palace in Upper
Square (Hotel Napoleon of today). Two days later he came to
Brno and took up his quarters in the Governor’s Palace. The
victorious battle of Napoleon’s “Great army” took place on
2 December in the fields between Brno and the small town
of Slavkov (Austerlitz).
In 1809, after the outbreak of another French-Austrian war,
Emperor Napoleon occupied the city once again. In the
Lužánky Park a great celebration of his birthday was held.
After the following peace Napolean commanded that part
of the Špilberk fortifications be pulled down. These bastions
have been rebuilt.
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If we want to go around the most important sites of this old
war history at the Austerlitz battlefield we can start at the
Mohyla míru (Cairn of Peace) on the Prace knoll. Here in the
centre of what was once a battlefield is where the battle was
definitely resolved. More than a hundred years after the battle
an Art Nouveau monument was erected in commemoration
of all the victims; it now houses a new multimedia exhibition
which offers the visitors a lot of information and a remarkable experience, to say nothing of the stunning panorama
of the battlefield as seen from this place. In the distance we
can catch a glimpse of the Žuráň knoll from where Napoleon
commanded his troops and the Santon hillock which was the
base of the French artillery. If we take the old imperial road
from Brno to Olomouc coming from Žuráň and Santon we
come to the Stará pozořická pošta (Old Pozořice Post Office).
This is where Napoleon met with his marshals before the
battle; during the battle it housed the headquarters of the
Russian General Bagration. All around the post office fierce
fighting was going on and after his victory this was the place
where Napoleon held talks with the Austrian parliamentarian Count Liechtenstein. We can end our wandering over the
battlefield in Slavkov – abroad known as Austerlitz – after
which the battle has been named and where armistice was
signed in the monumental chateau.
In the footsteps of Napoleon Bonaparte in South Moravia
Cairn of Peace, Prace – memorial to the victims of the battle and multimedia exhibition of the “Battle of the Three Emperors. Slavkov / Austerlitz 1805” (Prace)
Slavkov/Austerlitz near Brno – Chateau and demonstration of the battle
(Slavkov near Brno)
Stará pošta (Old Post Office) near Pozořice
Diorama of the battle (Tvarožná)
Summer house of the Mitrovský family in Brno (Brno)
Znojmo, Ugart’s Paláce in Upper Square (Hotel Napoleon of today)
Plaque, Brno, Governor’s Palace, Moravské náměstí Square 1/02
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Sir Winston Churchill
A British politician of world renown, Winston Churchill was
a frequent visitor to Moravia. That is to say if we are speaking of the early 20th century. He visited Castle Veveří three
times as a guest of his friend Baron Moritz Arnold de Forest.
Baron Arnold, landlord of the Veveří-Rosice estate, spent
most of his life in Britain and this explains the close relationship he had with the then minister for trade of the British
Empire. Churchill visited Castle Veveří for the first time in August 1906; for the second time he came in September 1907
when he was said to have hunted hares and pheasants; and
finally in September 1908 during his honeymoon with his
wife Clementine. He called at the Chateau in Rosice which
was also de Forest’s property. In 2005 a commemorative tablet was placed in the entrance behind the inner castle gate
in memory of Churchill’s stay at Castle Veveří; the author is
Otmar Oliva.
In the footsteps of Winston Churchill in South Moravia
Castle Veveří
Chateau in Rosice
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Karel Absolon
Professor Karel Absolon ranks among the most renowned
representatives of Czech science. Native of Boskovice, he was
active at Charles University and the Moravian Land Museum.
The original scientific interest of the young scientist rested in research of cave insect. Entomological collections of cave fauna
soon stirred up his curiosity concerning exploration of caves. Up
until 1908, he explored and documented the majority of caves
in the northern part of Moravian Karst and Rudice Ponors. Together with his friends he descended to Macocha Abyss, the
biggest Czech gorge, and he managed to enter new vast spaces
in the already known caves. The Macocha Abyss was made
publicly accessible thanks to his efforts. Of even greater significance were his archaeological explorations of the Palaeolithic.
He considered the settlement of mammoth hunters near Dolní
Věstonice, where he performed archaeological research between 1924 and 1938, as the large “Palaeolithic Pompeii”. The
Venus of Dolní Věstonice was discovered in 1925. From 1925 to
1930, he supervised the research of a settlement of reindeer and
horse hunters in Cave Pekárna. At the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in Brno (1928), he presented artefacts from the
dawn of human history to the public; at this point he first came
up with the idea of establishing the Anthropos Pavilion which
was then accessible to public in the Brno Exhibition Grounds
until 1945. In the wake of WWII, it was erected in the Brno Pisárky quarter park.
In the footsteps of Karel Absolon in South Moravia
Punkva Caves – Ostrov u Macochy
Dietrichstein Palace in Brno
Anthropos Pavilion – Brno, Pisárky quarter
Honorary circle in the Brno Central Cemetery
Memorial plaque, Residence building, Boskovice, Hradní Street
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Johann Gregor Mendel
One and a half centuries ago Mendel, abbot at the Augustinian monastery in the Old Brno quarter, arrived at his fundamental discoveries by crossing plants, i.e. the principles
of heredity which became the basis of the modern theory of
genetics. Today the results of Mendel’s research activities are
applied in medicine and in other scientific branches. Johann
Gregor Mendel was born in Hynčice in 1822; his native house
has been preserved to the present times and houses a small
museum. The exhibition displays his childhood and his life
history.
The city Brno is exceptionally proud of “its” Mendel. The name
Mendel is a great name all over the world. The great interest
of visitors, who come to the Czech Republic, says much about
his fame. They usually come to see the Brno monastery where
Mendel worked and where his museum is housed.
In 1843 Mendel joined the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas
in the Old Brno quarter and was given the name Gregor. He
studied at the University of Vienna and after graduating
worked as supply teacher of natural history and physics in
Brno at the First German Grammar School in Jánská Street. In
1854 a greenhouse was built in the garden of the Abbey and
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from then on Mendel carried out his experiments crossing pea
plants. These experiments went on for 10 years; in 1865, basing on his results Mendel delivered his vital study “Experiments
with Plant Hybrids” at the meeting of the Society of Natural
Scientists in Brno. In this study he formulated three principles
which later became known as Mendel’s laws of heredity.
Mendel was also an avid and highly respected bee-keeper; the
monastery garden features a beehive from 1871. Mendel also
showed keen interest in meteorology; two thirds of his work
was devoted to this discipline. On the premises of the monastery Mendel carried out meteorological observations; for instance, he was among the first to describe a windstorm which
had hit Brno in 1870.
In 1868 Mendel was elected Abbot of the Augustinian Monastery in the Old Brno quarter. In 1883 he was taken seriously
ill and he died on 6 January 1884. He is buried in the tomb of
the Augustinians at the Central Cemetery in Brno. At his funeral composer Leoš Janáček conducted the Requiem in the
church.
In the footsteps of Johann Gregor Mendel in South Moravia
Mendel Museum, Masaryk University (Brno)
Mendelianum (Brno)
Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno – bust at the University
(between buildings A and B)
Augustinian Abbacy with the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady (Brno)
Commemorative plaque, Brno, Jánská Street 22/1
Znojmo –house No. 42 in Jezuitská Street
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Prokop Diviš
The monument by Bohuslav Fuchs with a model of the first
lightening rod in Europe at the Parish Church of St. Margaret
in Přímětice commemorates the Moravian intellectual and designer Prokop Diviš (real name Václav Divíšek), who lived from
1698 to 1765.
He was the parish priest in Přímětice from 1736, where in his free
time he conducted experiments primarily with static electricity.
In 1754 he also constructed the first lightening rod in Europe, although at the same time Benjamin Franklin came to the same
scientific conclusions independently of Diviš. Besides researching atmospheric energy Diviš also formed the roots of electrotherapy. Music was a great interest of the parish priest as well.
In his time Prokop Diviš amazed all of Central Europe with the
construction of an ingenious and original multiharmonic musical instrument known as the Denis d‘Or (Golden Dionysus).
A bust of this top European inventor can be seen on Divišovo
náměstí in the center of Znojmo. It was created by the famous
sculptor and medal maker from Znojmo J.F. Fischer, a student
of Otakar Španiel.
In 1898 the organization Znojemská Beseda hung a plaque
commemorating Diviš at the Přímětice parish church. In
1906 a model of Diviš’s device was erected in the courtyard
of Znojmo Castle, where it stood for several decades. In 1936
members of the organization Národní jednota constructed a
model lightening rod in front of the Přímětice parish church.
In the footsteps of Prokop Diviš in South Moravia
The Prokop Diviš Monument (Znojmo-Přímětice)
Memorial bust, Znojmo, Divišovo náměstí Square
The Municipal Museum and Prokop Diviš House (Žamberk)
Commemorative plaque in the former Jesuit Grammar School, Znojmo,
Jezuitské náměstí Square
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Jan Evangelista Purkyně
The most famous Czech natural scientist of the 19th century
and founder of experimental physiology spent the greater
part of his youth in South Moravia. J. E. Purkyně first attended
school in the town of his birth Libochovice but thanks to his
musical talent at the age of 11 years he became a chorister
at the gymnasium in Mikulov which belonged to the Catholic
Piarist order. After graduating from the gymnasium at the age
of 17 years he joined the Piarist order. The order offered him
a good opportunity to become a teacher and be fully engaged
in scientific activities. The Piarists taught mathematics, philosophy and experimental physics; they also went in for natural
sciences, music, painting and foreign languages. The Piarist
gymnasium in Mikulov was the first school of its kind north
of the Alps. After a one-year novitiate which Purkyně spent
in Stará Voda near the Silesian border he was sent as teacher
to the school in Strážnice. Here he worked in 1805–1806 as a
clericalist of the order; his regular name was Silverius. In his
honour the gymnasium in Strážnice is named after him.
In the footsteps of J. E. Purkyně in South Moravia
Mikulov, gymnasium
Strážnice, gymnasium
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Thomas Alva Edison
The Moravian historic sight reminding us of the legendary inventor, entrepreneur, and pioneer in the use of electric power
is unique. In 1882, Edison in fact electrified the new Brno theatre. Brno has thus become the first European city with a fully
electrified theatre building.
Prior to 1882, when the famous Viennese duo of architects
Fellner & Helmer were preparing the design of the new theatre, the memories of the recent fire in the Viennese Ringtheater
caused by a gas lamp were still on everybody‘s mind. When
the decision between the not yet well-tried electricity and
town gas was to be met, the choice thus fell on electric power.
Brno town councillors commissioned Edison‘s Parisian firm
with the installation of electrical lighting in the theatre. Due
to their insufficient experience, the firm turned to Edison. To
connect the recently constructed small-scale steam power
station in Vlhká Street to the theatre located at the distance of
350 m, Edison designed a prototype of an underground cable.
The installation of 800 light bulbs was performed by Edison‘s
assistant Francis Jehl. One of the original light bulbs is today
exhibited in a show case below the main theatre staircase.
In 1911, former Edison‘s employee Emil Kolben, the Czech
founder of the Kolben-Daněk company, invited the famous
inventor to Prague. While driving his own automobile from
Vienna, Edison stopped in Brno on September 13 to look at
the theatre wiring and he was allegedly very satisfied with it.
In the footsteps of Thomas Alva Edison in South Moravia
Mahen Theatre in Brno
An upcoming statue in front of the department store Centrum in Brno
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Ernst Mach
Native of Chrlice near Brno Ernst Mach ranks among the most
important personalities of science of the second half of the
19th century, particularly in the area of experimental physics. A physical unit is called a mach (Mach’s number) and is
familiar to every inquisitive schoolchild interested in aircraft
and spaceships.
Ernst Mach was born in 1838 in Chrlice, Brno, in the then Archbishop’s Chateau (his maternal grandfather was administrator of the archbishop‘s assets). Mach’s father was 22 years
old when, as professor of a gymnasium in Prague, he met
the 13-year-old sister of his student Emerich Lanhaus from
Chrlice in Moravia. He waited and 10 years later he married
Josefa. The eldest of their three children, Ernst Walfried Joseph
Wenzel Mach, was born on 18 February 1838. Two years after Ernst’s birth the family moved to Lower Austria. However
the boy attended the Piarist Gymnasium in Kroměříž. Later
he graduated from the University of Vienna where he studied
physics and mathematics. In 1867–95 he became professor
of physics at Charles University in Prague. In the 28 years of
his activities in the Czech lands he created virtually his whole
physical work.
In 1938 a bronze memorial tablet was unveiled on Mach’s native house – the Archbishops’ Chateau in Chrlice; during World
War 2 it disappeared and in 1988 was replaced by a new one.
In the footsteps of Ernst Mach in South Moravia
Memorial tablet on the chateau in Brno-Chrlice
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Josef Jiří Kamel
(J. G. Camel)
A Jesuit missionary and botanist, Kamel was born in Brno in
1661 to the family of a shearing foreman Andres Kamel in
a small house not far from the then Jewish Gate which used
to stand near the main railway station of today. At the age of
17 Josef entered the Jesuit missionary school in Vienna and
then he attended the gymnasium in Brno. After graduation at
the age of 21 years Kamel joined the order of the Society of
Jesus, the Jesuit order. From his adolescent years he was interested in botany which brought him to the College’s dispensary. Although the old Jesuit College was pulled down in 1904
it is not difficult to discover where Kamel, the Jesuit, lived; the
street in Brno is called Jezuitská Street where you will also find
the Jesuit Church of Our Lady. In 1578 the Jesuits acquired a
convent from the Herburg nuns and within 15 years they began to build a new college. In the 17th century they gradually
built an expansive complex of buildings of which only the gate
in Mozart Street has been preserved to the present times.
Kamel was ordained a priest in 1682 and apart from other
things he worked as a pharmacist and orderly in infirmaries
in Brno, Jindřichův Hradec and Český Krumlov. After five years
he was sent as a missionary to the Philippine Islands which at
that time were colonised by Spain. He opened the first pharmacy in the Philippines and founded a large botanical garden
with European and local healing herbs. Jiří Josef Kamel died in
Manila on 2 May 1706 of an acute feverish intestinal disease.
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Kamel’s contribution to botany and science is his systematic
work which he pursued during his mission on the island of
Luzon in the Philippines collecting and describing plants that
could be used for pharmacology purposes. Kamel passed the
results of his investigations on to the Royal British Society. His
drawings are much valued particularly as scientific documents as not as mere pictures. In his times they were ahead
of any scientific description of that time. Kamel also made an
attempt at systematic classification of plants. Thanks to his
work the scientific circles in Europe got to know the fauna and
flora of the Philippines. No wonder that the prominent Swedish nature scientist Carl Linné named one of the most beautiful plants of the Far East after Kamel. He named the shrub
which also used to be called the “Japanese rose” as Camellia
japonica.
In the footsteps of Jiří Kamel in South Moravia
Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, Dvořákova Street, Brno
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Viktor Kaplan
He was born on November 27, 1876 in the small Austrian town
of Mürzzuschlag. After graduating from the Vienna University
of Technology and after a short time working in a combustion engine factory he joined the German Technical University
in Brno in 1903 as a designer. At that time he was already extremely interested in water turbines and the economic utilization of watercourses.
The Industrial Revolution required ever more energy, and
therefore attempts to utilize low-head watercourses, on which
common Francis turbines could not be used, were made. In the
small turbine laboratory that he built at the German Technical University in Brno, Professor Kaplan created a completely
new type of turbine over time. At first by lowering the number
of blades and by narrowing them he lowered friction loss, and
later he constructed blades that could be rotated while the
turbine was running and adjust to changed flow conditions.
This allowed even strongly variable watercourses to be economically utilized.
Professor Kaplan patented his main inventions (the radial diaphragm, adjustable runner blades, the arrangement of the
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runner-free space between the diaphragm and rotor and the
cell-less creation of rotor blades) between 1912 and 1914.
World War I and patent conflicts postponed the use of Kaplan’s inventions until 1918 when the Brno engineering works
and foundry of Ignác Storek manufactured the first Kaplan
turbine for a textile mill in Velm, Lower Austria. Soon afterwards licensing contracts for the manufacture of Kaplan turbines were made with a number of companies joined together
under the international Kaplanturbinenkonzern.
The strains of work and a long-lasting struggle to have his
inventions recognized culminated in Professor Kaplan being
afflicted with a long-term nervous disorder at the beginning
of 1922. Several hydroelectric plants were equipped with new
Kaplan turbines, e.g. in Loučná, Rapotín, Kroměříž, and Gorizia in Italy and Lilla Edet in Sweden.
In 1926 the Prague Technical University honored Kaplan’s
work by granting him an honorary doctorate in the technical sciences. In 1931 Professor Kaplan requested to be relieved
of his duties at the university and moved to a small estate in
Rochuspoint in Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, where he built
his own workshop and a small electric plant. On August 23,
1934 shortly after being awarded an honorary doctorate in
the technical sciences by the Brno Technical University, Professor Dr. Kaplan died there as well.
The Technical Museum in Brno boasts the extensive writings of
Professor Viktor Kaplan and his assistant ing. Jarsoslav Slavík.
Seventeen archival boxes contain the original patents granted for Professor Kaplan’s inventions in individual countries, as
well as material created as a result of Kaplan’s scientific work
and documentation from the patenting process.
In the footsteps of Viktor Kaplan in South Moravia
Commemorative plaque on the 50th anniversary of the Kaplan turbine, Brno.
Šmeralovy závody Factory, 65c/03 Křenová Street
Technical Museum Brno
Memorial with a bronze bust by Sylva Lacinová from 1959, Údolní 53, Brno
– a park on the corner of Úvoz Street
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W. A. Mozart
South Moravia was lucky that one of the greatest music composers of all times, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited Brno.
For that matter the statue of the brilliant musician in front of
the Reduta Theatre in Zelný trh (Vegetable market) in Brno is a
new tourist attraction of the town. Kurt Gebauer’s statue commemorates the event of 30 December 1767 when the then
11-year-old Mozart, the “prodigy child”, gave a concert in this
very theatre in Brno together with his elder sister Maria Anna.
By the way his diversion to Moravia was purely coincidental.
Originally the Mozart’s were to perform at the wedding of the
Empress Maria Theresa’s daughter but immediately before the
wedding Vienna was hit by an epidemic of smallpox to which
the young bride succumbed immediately afterwards. For fear
of becoming infected the Mozart’s set out northwards to Brno,
the home of the brother of their patron Count Schrattenbach
from Salzburg. Then they moved on to Olomouc where the
sickly little Mozart underwent medical treatment for nearly two
months. Even here the brilliant boy was not idle; he composed
most of his 6th symphony in F Major. On Christmas Eve the
Mozart’s were back in Brno and this time they stayed for two
weeks. The family was again accommodated in the palace of
Count Schrattenbach in Kobližná Street. Today this building
houses the Jiří Mahen Library. A plaque on the building commemorates the Mozart family’s stay in Brno.
In the footsteps of W. A. Mozart in South Moravia
Reduta Theatre, Zelný trh, Brno
Statue of W. A. Mozart, Zelný trh (Vegetable Market), Brno
Commemorative plaque, Schrattenbach Palace, Kobližná Street 4/1, Brno
(a Mozart “Kugeln” is placed in the entrance to the building)
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Otakar Kubín-Coubine
Otakar Kubín (Othon Coubine in French) was born 22 October
1883 to the family of Jan Kubín, bookseller in Boskovice. At the
age of 15 years Otakar enrolled at the teacher’s college in Brno
but because already at that time his life was painting he prevailed upon his parents to let him study sculpture in Hořice.
In 1900 Otakar Kubín enrolled at the Academy in Prague. After
graduation Kubín earned his first salary drawing documentation during speleological explorations of Karel Absolon to the
Moravian Carst. In 1912 he left for France and stayed there for
40 years and became a French painter. At first he lived in Paris
and then moved to Provence. For the French people he discovered the charm of the landscape in Provence and in the 1920’s
and 1930’s his paintings of Provence brought him fame. After
World War I, Pablo Picasso came to visit Kubín in Provence and
supported his neoclassical artistic belief.
In 1951 Kubín moved back to Czechoslovakia with his second
wife. They usually stayed in Prague only during winter and
in summer they stayed in Kubín’s home town Boskovice; the
town had adapted a flat for their famous native in a residence
near the chateau. In October 1964 the couple left Czechoslovakia for France and never came back again. Kubín died in
Marseille and was buried in the small town of Apt, the native
town of his second wife Berthe.
In the footsteps of Otakar Kubín in South Moravia
Monument with bust in the place where his native house used to stand, in the
small park in Kpt. Jaroš Street in Boskovice
Plaque on the building called Residence where he stayed. Hradní Street, Boskovice
Otakar Kubín’s Gallery, Masaryk Square 1/3, Boskovice
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Alfons Mucha
Famous Czech Art Nouveau painter and decorative designer
of world-wide importance, was born on 24 July 1869 in the
town of Ivančice to the family of a court usher Ondřej Mucha.
He came into the world in the rear wing of the courthouse in
Ivančice where a monument was built in his honour.
Ondřej Mucha had six children. Alfons’s artistic talent for
drawing had been evident since his early childhood. In 1872
he entered the Slovanské Gymnasium in Brno and because he
had an extraordinary flair not only for arts but also for singing he earned some money on the side as a choirboy in the
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on Petrov Hill.
In 1877 Alfons Mucha returned to Ivančice because his father
had found him a job as a municipal clerk. The following year
Alfons applied to the Academy of Visual Arts in Prague but
was unable to gain admission. He worked with an amateur
theatre painting theatrical scenery and posters and designing
invitation cards. In the autumn of 1879 Alfons Mucha left for
Vienna where he got a job as assistant in a firm making stage
sets where he worked as painter of theatrical scenery.
When in 1881 a fire destroyed the Ringtheater, the most important customer of his employer, Mucha, as the youngest
employee, was laid off. He moved back to Moravia to the
town of Mikulov where he earned his living, among others, by
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doing freelance portrait painting. Alfons Mucha’s talent drew
the attention of Count Khuen-Belasi who commissioned him
to decorate the Emmahof Castle in Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou
and the Castle Gandegg in the Tyrol. The Count was so impressed by Mucha’s painting that he decided to sponsor his
formal training at the Academy in Munich and at the Julian
and Colarossi Academies in Paris.
A radical turning point in his life came about in 1894 with
a more or less chance demand of the famous actress Sarah
Bernhardt for a poster. Mucha did well and was offered an exclusive contract for a period of six years; among others he also
designed the actress’s dresses and hair styles. Mucha’s decorative style was so popular that it even bore his name. The French
called it “Le styl Mucha” and for them it was a synonym for Art
Nouveau. Alfons Mucha became an artist of world renown as
painter, graphic artist, painter of posters, author of jewellery
and decorative objects.
In 1904 he left for USA where he joined the Slavonic patriotic
movement. At that time his idea was born to paint the Slavic
Epic, his final great work of art which he began after he returned to the Czech Lands in 1910 and finished it in 1928. The
Slavic Epic is a series of 20 monumental canvasses depicting
the history of the Czech and other Slavic peoples. Since 1963
the Slav Epic has been on display at the Chateau in Moravský
Krumlov. It is also worth mentioning that Mucha designed
banknotes and postage stamps for the independent Republic of Czechoslovakia. Alfons Mucha died on 14 July 1939 in
Prague.
In the footsteps of Alfons Mucha in South Moravia
Slav Epic – Moravský Krumlov, chateau
Alfons Mucha Memorial – Ivančice
In 1935 a commemorative plaque was installed on the building of today’s Hotel
Tanzberg in Mikulov which the Nazis destroyed. The author of the substitute
commemorative plaque is Nikos Armutidis
Slavonic Gymnasium, today’s Gymnasium in the Třída Kpt. Jaroše Street – Brno
Church of St. Peter and St. Paul on Petrov Hill – Brno
Museum of the Brno district, Museum in Ivančice
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Bohumil Hrabal
The most famous writer of modern 20th century Czechoslovak literature is a native of Židenice quarter in Brno (1914). A
memorial plaque was installed on his native house in an inconspicuous street in Židenice, where he spent the first three
years of his life. He was born to an unmarried mother Marie
Kiliánová. His godfather at baptism, lemonade merchant
František Hrabal, adopted him two years later. Apart from
his life at the Brno periphery, young Hrabal also experienced
totally different environment: the contemporary intellectual
elite gathering in the Obřany quarter villa of his uncle Bohuslav Kilián, whose impact on Hrabal‘s later works was essential.
The Hrabal family then moved to Polná and later to Nymburk
where František (appearing in Hrabal‘s novels as Francin) became an accountant in the local brewery. Bohumil Hrabal was
however still to spend a certain period of time in Židenice. In
September of 1925, he started to attend the first grade of the
Czech grammar school in Brno (the present Grammar School
in Kapitána Jaroše Street). He failed the very first school year
and he had to repeat the first grade under his parents‘ supervision at the state technical secondary school in Nymburk. As
an adult, Bohumil Hrabal almost never visited Brno. He died
in Prague after a fall from a fifth-floor window in the Bulovka
hospital on February 3, 1997.
In the footsteps of Bohumil Hrabal in South Moravia
Memorial plaque: Balbínova 47/01
Memorial: Balbínova 53/01, park at the end of the street
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Robert Musil
Austrian writer and innovator of the modern European novel,
Musil spent part of his boyhood in Brno. When he was eleven
years old his father Alfred won a professorial post at the Technical University in Brno where the family moved. They lived in
Jaselská Street where a plaque on the house commemorates
that he lived here. He spent more than ten years of his childhood and adolescence in Brno and he visited his parents in
their flat until they passed away in 1924. On his father’s side his
roots were Moravian; Robert’s great-grandfather was a small
peasant in Rychtářov near Vyškov. In Brno young Musil attended the gymnasium in Eliščina třída Street (Husova Street
of today) and later the Technical University.
In the German-language-speaking environment Robert Musil
is considered to be one of the most important writers-thinkers
of the first half of the 20th century. His monumental novel
“The Man without Qualities” (in Czech 1980, 1998) remained
unfinished, nonetheless in it Musil managed to map to perfection the crisis of modern European culture. Robert Musil died
in poverty during his Swiss exile in the middle of World War 2.
In the footsteps of Robert Musil in South Moravia
Plaque: Jaselská Street 10 (former Augustiánská Street)
other addresses in Brno:
Tivoli Street 29, now Jiráskova Street 29 (1891–1894),
Údolní Street 28 (1894–1897)
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Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček was a world-renowned composer whose life
was connected to Brno. His music is valued above all for its unusual melody, based on regional Moravian folk music, from
the Slovácko and Lašsko regions in particular, and speech
tunelets. Janáček is known worldwide mainly thanks to his
operas, his orchestral-vocal piece the Glagolithic Mass, Sinfonietta, the symphonic poem Taras Bulba and chamber pieces
mainly for string quartets. It is not a coincidence that the Brno
opera house bears his name.
Leoš Janáček, one of the most original phenomena in modern
Czech and world music, was born in Hukvaldy in northeastern Moravia on July 3, 1854. His poor parents sent little Leoš to
school at the Augustinian Monastery in Brno in 1865. In 1869
he started at the Teaching Institute, which was located in the
building where the Faculty of Architecture is today on Poříčí
Street. Janáček became Pavel Křížkovský’s assistant choir director at the Starobrněnská Basilica. Křížkovský recommended Janáček study at the Prague Organ School. He received
further musical education in Leipzig and Vienna.
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Leoš Janáček married his sixteen-year-old student Zdeňka
Schulzová. At first the young married couple lived on
Měšťanská Street (now Křížová Street) in Staré Brno; after
their daughter Olga was born on August 15, 1882 they lived
at 2 Klášterní (now Mendlovo) náměstí. Janáček’s first great
work was created here. Janáček’s son Vladimír (1888-1890)
was born and died here. The composer completed his piece
“Jenůfa” when his beloved daughter Olga died in 1903.
In his most prolific years as a composer (1910 to 1928) Janáček
lived in a garden house at what was at one time an organ
school. Today an exposition devoted to the composer’s legacy
is located here as well. It includes Janáček’s study and piano;
in another part of the house there is a modern exposition that
gives basic textual and visual information about the life of the
composer and evokes his most famous works. It is also possible to listen to music and to watch documentary films.
Leoš Janáček, one of the most famous composers in the world,
died in the Ostrava Hospital on August 12, 1928 of pneumonia. He is buried in the Central Cemetery in Brno.
In the footsteps of Leoš Janáček in South Moravia
The Leoš Janáček Monument (Brno)
The Fojtství Museum and the Primary School (Kozlovice)
Commemorative plaque, Brno, The Starobrněnský (Old Brno) Monastery, Mendlovo
náměstí Square 1/7 (Janáček grew up here from 1865)
Commemorative plaque, Brno, The Teachers’ Education Institute. He taught here
from 1878-1904, Poříčí 5/01
Leoš Janáček Birthplace (Hukvaldy)
Memorial, Štramberk
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Hugo Haas and Pavel Haas
Hugo Haas, the famous Czech actor and director, was born on
18 February 1901 in Brno into the family of a shoe trader Zikmund Haas. In the strongly germanised Brno the Jewish trader professed to be Czech and both of his sons, Pavel and Hugo,
attended Czech schools. The elder Pavel studied composition
at the conservatoire with Leoš Janáček and the younger Hugo
wanted to be a singer. They lived near the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Biskupská Street.
After graduating from the conservatoire Hugo won engagement in the National Theatre in Brno. In 1925 he joined the
company of players of the National Theatre in Prague. During the First Republic (period between the world wars) he became famous particularly for his film roles. In 1939 he received
a notice and had to leave the theatre for racial reasons and
in April he fled to USA with his wife Bibi. Hugo Haas made it
in America, not only as an actor in Hollywood, but also as a
screen writer, director and producer. He died on 1 December
1968 in Vienna and at his own request his urn was placed next
to his mother in the Jewish Cemetery in Brno.
His brother Pavel, outstanding music composer, stayed in the
occupied protectorate. At the end of 1941 he was deported to
Terezín and from there to Auschwitz where he died in the gas
chamber in 1944. On 29 April 1997 a memorial tablet was unveiled to the Haas brothers on the house in Biskupská Street
No. 8 where both artists had lived with their parents.
In the footsteps of Hugo and Pavel Haas
Grave at the Jewish Cemetery in Brno
Memorial tablet, Biskupská Street 8, Brno
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Marie
von Ebner-Eschenbach
Great German-writing Moravian writer Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach was born on 13 September 1830 at Zdislavice Castle near Kroměříž. She came from an old Moravian family of
Dubský. At the age of eighteen she married her cousin Moritz
von Ebner Eschenbach, physicist and chemist, who served in
the Austrian army. The couple spent the years 1851–1863 in
Louka near Znojmo where the Engineering Academy where
Moritz was professor was transferred. They often went to the
Lešná Chateau not far from Valašské Meziříčí where Marie
visited her niece and also to the Dubský family residence in
the Lysice Chateau. Today the Chateau houses a permanent
exhibition devoted to this exceptional writer who is still very
popular in Austria. The exhibition has been installed in two
rooms in the settlement built in front of the chateau. The first
room is a memorial to the writer; the second room holds an
exhibition reawakening the theatre at the Lysice Chateau
where plays were staged until 1902 when it burnt down with
all the costumes and wings. Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach had
a great passion for the theatre; however it was her prose that
brought her fame.
In 1898 she was awarded the Cross of Honour by Emperor
Francis Joseph for her literary activities. In 1890 she was
awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna. Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach died on 12 March 1916 and
is buried in the family vault of the Dubsky counts at Zdislavice
Castle.
In the footsteps of Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach in South Moravia
Lysice – permanent exhibition
Zdislavice near Zdounky – classicist burial vault of the Dubský family
Louka near Znojmo – monastery
Lešná near Valašské Meziříčí, Chateau
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Magdalena Kožená
Magdalena Kožená was born to a mathematician father and
a biologist mother in Brno. She went to an art elementary
school and sang in the Kantiléna children‘s choir. She originally wanted to study piano at the Brno Conservatoire, but
fate struck when she injured her hand during physical education before the entrance examinations. She then passed the
examination for the singing department.
In the end she graduated from the Brno Conservatoire in singing as well as piano in 1991. She continued her studies at the
Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava from 1991 to 1995.
Her first international success came at the 6th International
Mozart Competition in 1995 in Salzburg, where she won in the
singing category and was declared the first absolute winner of
this prestigious competition. At home her success went without much notice, and therefore she went on to the Viennese
Volksoper. Since then she has been attracting attention from
the greatest opera houses in Europe and the entire world.
This world-class mezzo-soprano always makes it back to her
hometown to see her mother and friends, whenever time allows it. Kožená has two sons, Jonáš and Miloš, with her husband, acclaimed British conductor Simon Rattle. They live in
Berlin. She does not hide her fondness for Renaissance and
Baroque authors, visual arts and poetry however, and has
been promoting Czech and Moravian music abroad.
In the footsteps of Magdalena Kožená
Conservatoire, Brno
Besední dům (the Neo-Renaissance concert hall) in Brno
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Milan Kundera
Probably the best known contemporary Czech prose writer
abroad, who is also a playwright, translator, and essayist, is a
native of Brno. He was born on April Fool‘s Day in 1929 in the
family of a musicologist and the first Vice-Chancellor of Janáček
Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Ludvík Kundera. He
graduated from the Grammar School in Kapitána Jaroše Street
in Brno. After the GCSE examination in 1948, he enrolled at the
department of literary science and aesthetics of Faculty of Arts
at Charles University. After two semesters, he changed his mind
and decided to study at the Film and TV School of the Academy
of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). After his graduation, he
started teaching world literature at FAMU – first as an assistant,
starting from 1958 as a lecturer, and as an associate professor
from 1964.
Besides, he was devoted to studying music, composition, and
piano playing until he was 25. His lectures at FAMU abruptly
ended in 1970 when he was dismissed as politically undesirable
and he left to France in 1975. After the publication of his novel
Book of Laughter and Forgetting (1979), which labels the president Gustáv Husák as “president of forgetting”, he became deprived of Czechoslovak citizenship. He thus remained in France
where he was later granted new citizenship. He taught at the
University in Rennes and from 1980 in the position of a full professor at École des Hautes Études in Paris. He carefully avoids
the media so that the only certain information at our disposal
is that he lives in Paris with his wife Věra, a former Brno TV announcer. He travelled to his home town after 1989 but, typically
for him, incognito.
In the footsteps of Milan Kundera in South Moravia
Grammar School in Kpt. Jaroše Street, Brno
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
To all intents and purposes the personality of the famous German architect and designer is not exactly linked with South
Moravia. Nevertheless he created a masterpiece of modern
architecture of world importance. We are naturally speaking of
the monument entered in the UNESCO World Cultural list, the
Tugendhat Villa in Brno, Černopolní Street No. 45.
Mies built the famous villa in Brno in 1928 – 30 for Fritz and
Greta Tugendhat who came from families of prominent Jewish textile industrialists in Moravia and Brno. The Tugendhat
couple wanted a house of “clear-cut and simple shapes”. Mies
accomplished this task splendidly; he used luxurious materials
and very modern technology. The villa with slim steel columns,
air-conditioning, captivating wall made of rare onyx and large
panes of the windows mechanically sliding down into the floor,
is an absolutely perfect technological and aesthetic creation.
In December 1930 the family moved into the villa but they enjoyed it only until May 1938 when they fled from the Nazis; first
to Switzerland and then to Venezuela. After World War 2 the
villa was used as a dance studio and rehabilitation centre. In
1981–1985 the building was restored and remodelled for the
city’s ceremonial purposes. Since 1994 the villa has been open
to the public.
In the footsteps of Miese van der Rohe in South Moravia
Villa Tugendhat, Černopolní 45, Brno
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Bohuslav Fuchs
Prominent architect, city planner, teacher and designer Bohuslav
Fuchs was the leading representative of Czech functionalism, the
so-called architectonic school of Brno. His avant-garde buildings
helped to transform Brno into a modern city and his thoughts
and artistic value rank him among the everlasting works of Czech
modernist architecture.
Born in Všechovice pod Hostýnem Fuchs settled in Brno in 1923
when he accepted an offer to work at the Building Office of the
Brno municipality. In 1925 Fuchs took the office of head of the
department of the Building Office where he remained until 1929.
During this period he designed his most important structures: Café
Zeman, baths in Zábrdovice, Masaryk students’ hall of residence
in Cihlářská Street, Moravská banka Bank in náměstí Svobody
Square (in cooperation with Arnošt Wiesner), Eliška Machová hall
of residence in the neighbourhood of the Vesna school, Pavilion of
the city of Brno for the Exhibition of Contemporary Culture at the
Brno exhibition grounds and above all his master design comparable with the work of architects of world renown, the Hotel Avion
in Česká Street. Towards the close of the so-called “first republic”
(period between the two world wars) he designed the buildings
of the regional military headquarters in Kounicova Street and the
railway post office.
Professor Bohuslav Fuchs is buried in a place of honour at the
Central Cemetery in Brno. On the occasion of his centenary (1995)
his monument was unveiled in a small park on the corner of Neumannova and Lipova streets in the Pisárky quarter of Brno.
In the footsteps of Bohuslav Fuchs in South Moravia
Hotel Avion in Česká Street, Brno
Zemanova kavárna (Café Zeman), Brno
Municipal Baths in Zábrdovice, Brno
Masaryk students’ hall of residence in Cihlářská Street, Brno
Moravská banka Bank in náměstí Svobody Square, Brno
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Dušan Samo Jurkovič
A Slovak architect, furniture designer and ethnographer.
Dušan Samo Jurkovič was a distinctive representative of Art
Nouveau architecture. He created a very distinctive “national
style” that was markedly influenced by folk architecture. We
can trace Jurkovič’s roots in working with folk forms back to
his family life; his father was a well-known Slovak patriot, and
his mother was an expert on folk art.
After studying in Vienna and gaining work experience in the
Slovak city of Martin and in Vsetín, he started working as an
independent architect in Brno in 1896. The stimulus for his
move to Brno was an offer to design the furniture of the Vesna
Girls’ School’s dormitory.
He created several architectural works in Brno. Of greatest significance is his villa in Žabovřesky that was designed in 1905
and built the following year, and is a unique example of the
synthesis of folk art and contemporary stimuli from the Viennese Modern and British design.
Jurkovič’s villa is one of the most important architectural
monuments from the turn of the 20th century in Brno. The
Moravian Gallery in Brno has acquired Jurkovič’s villa. By
2010 they want to repair it, dedicate it to Dušan Jurkovič and
44
his creative works, and open it up to visitors. Those interested
may follow the progress of work on the building online (http://
www.moravska-galerie.cz/cs/projekty/on-line-rekonstrukce/
on-line-rekonstrukce/). This work, and the buildings designed
by Jurkovič in Pustevny, Luhačovice and at the palace in Nové
Město nad Metují, form the main body of his preserved works
in the Czech Republic.
The Biedermeier principles of Viennese Modern architecture
can be detected in the apartment building of Bohumil Škarda
(1908), who was the owner of the glass factory that supplied
the glass for the mosaics in Jurkovič’s villa.
In the footsteps of Dušan Jurkovič in South Moravia
The Jurkovič Villa, Brno, 2 Jana Nečase Street
(currently not regularly open to the public)
B. Škarda Apartment Building, 1908, Dvořákova Street, Brno
45
Adolf Loos
Born in Brno in 1870 to the family of a stonemason and sculptor, Adolf Loos is a highly regarded architect and one of the
most clamant campaigners for economy and functionality
in architecture. In today’s Kounicova Street No. 6 at the place
where Loos’s native house once stood a memorial tablet was
erected in 1970. The Hotel Continental now stands on the site.
Little Adolf attended elementary school in Brno. At the age
of 10 years he entered the higher gymnasium in Brno, later
the gymnasium in Jihlava. It seems that constant changes
were part of his youth: at 13 years of age he moved to the
gymnasium in Melk, in Austria; at 17 years of age he was
a student in Liberec but he passed his examination for the
school-leaving certificate at the age of 19 years again in
Brno, at the German School of Applied Arts.
He is a classic of modernist architecture and author of a
number of projects and buildings in the Czech lands built between 1890 and 1933. The landmark of Loos’s architecture is
the family house built for František Müller in Prague which is
an excellent document of Loos’s original conception of spatial
design known as Raumplan.
His most important structures in Moravia were built for the Bauer family of sugar-makers. In 1914 on the premises of the sugar
refinery in Hrušovany near Brno he built a villa for the director
of the company and then probably also the new building of the
main factory. Later he was involved in redecorating the interior
of Bauerův zámeček (Bauer’s manor house) which today stands
within the premises of the Brno exhibition centre.
In the footsteps of Adolf Loos in South Moravia
Remodelling of the house in Jiráskova Street in Brno, 1910
Villa and factory building on the premises of the sugar refinery in Hrušovany near
Brno, 1914 and 1916–1922
Design of a house for Hermann Konstandt in Olomouc, after 1914 (was not built)
Remodelling of the manor house of Viktor Bauer in Brno (ca 1925),
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Issued by
Centrála cestovního ruchu – Jižní Morava, z. s. p. o.
(South-Moravian Tourist Authority)
Radnická 2, 602 00 Brno
www.ccrjm.cz
Text
Pavel Galík
Graphics
Ladislav Němeček
Translation
BM Business Consultants, s.r.o.
Facsimile from archives and collections provided by
Brno City Archive (AMB) (7, 8, 12, 16, 19, 22, 24, 34)
Benedictine Abbey in Rajhrad (4)
C.E.M.A. – Central European Music Agency (40)
Mendelianum, Moravian Museum Brno (20)
Moravian Library Brno (14, 23, 44)
Museum of Boskovice Region in Boskovice (31)
Museum of J.A. Komenský in Uherský Brod (3)
Brno City Museum (10, 13, 25, 38, 42, 43)
Moravian Museum Brno – Department of the history of music (30, 36)
Regional Museum in Žďár nad Sázavou (6, photo Zdeněk Málek)
Technical Museum Brno (28)
Museum of Brno Region in Ivančice (32)
Profimedia. CZ (18, 35, 41)
Museum of Applied Arts in Prague (46)
www.celysvet.cz (26)
Lysice Chateau (39)
Slavkov (Austerlitz) Chateau (7)
Production
Propag servis Brno, s.r.o.
Advertum, s.r.o.
Print
Printing house EXPODATA-DIDOT, spol. s r.o.
Year of issue 2009
47