Brno

Zelny trh (The Cabbage Market)

Our main reason for visiting the Czech Republic's second city was to see the astonishing Villa Tugendhat, but we also allowed time for a reasonably comprehensive walk around the old town, starting from the railway station. We took inspiration from the Brno.me website. You can also collect a free guide and map from the Tourist Office in the Old Town Hall.

We headed towards the Cabbage Market and first encountered the Capuchin church, completed in 1651. We did not go in to see the mummified corpses in the crypt.

Directly ahead as we entered the square was the tower of the Old Town Hall which dates back to the 13th century. The roof of the tower was added in the 16th century. Presumably because today was a Sunday, we were treated to a lovely rendition of some brass band music from the small troupe of musicians who can be seen on the viewing platform.

To the right is the Parnas Fountain, designed by the Viennese architect J B Fischer von Erlach and constructed 1690-5. It symbolises the cave in which, according to the Greek myth, Hercules tied up Cerberus, the hound of Hades.

To the is a very harmonious group of houses in a pleasing combination of colours.

We headed round to the left of the red house to find the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. This started life as an 11th century Romanesque basilica, but was rebuilt in the gothic style in the 14th century. It is prodigiously tall and impossible to photograph from nearby. This view was taken from the Old Town Hall Tower.

The inside comes as rather a shock as it was given a Baroque makeover in the 1740s. The stained glass and vaulting in the chancel were impressive.

We left the Cathedral and returned to the square, now heading along Peroutskova and Starobrnĕnskà streets to reach Husova street and the Špilberk Park. A pleasant winding path leads up towards the castle, but the first thing of note is a memorial to Italian prisoners who died there in the early 19th century. They were being honoured as patriots fighting for Italian independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The castle was once a genuine medieval castle, but was successively rebuilt as a Renaissance palace and a prison (in 1820). Today it houses the City Museum and one wing is the result of a recent imagining of what it once might have been like. So although there are massive brick walls providing a base, the superstructure is rather different.

The park is delightful though and we enjoyed a pleasant stroll around and then back down into the town, heading this time towards the New Town Hall. The building seems to date only from the 1930s, but this rear portal is a delight.

And the interior courtyard is also calm and harmonious.

It was not far to the Old Town Hall with its wonderful gothic gateway of 1510. It is said that the town council failed to pay the sculptor what he was due and as result he made the central pinnacle wonky.

In the passageway you can just make out the hanging shape of a "dragon" which allegedly once tormented the city. It is obviously in fact a crocodile ... but this still leaves many unanswered questions.

From here we walked up the main street, Masarykova, and through the massive Republic Square to reach St James's church, completed in 1592. It is another very tall church.

The tourist guide points out one detail which we would undoubtedly have otherwise missed: this little chap baring his buttocks who can be found on the middle section of the tower.

Inside the church is light and airy with beautiful vaulting picked out in gold.

We now had to head back to the station for our train back to Vienna and so this effectively marked the end of our tour. Returning along Masarykova, we did however spot this fabulous art nouveau house with its wonderful gold decoration.

Conditions: hot (mid 20s) and sunny.

Distance: about 3 miles.

Rating: four and a half stars. Full of interest.

Villa Tugendhat, Brno

 Villa Tugendhat

A family visit to Vienna gave us the long-awaited opportunity to hop over the border into the Czech Republic to visit Villa Tugendhat, a Modernist masterpiece designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1928-29. In 2009 we read Simon Mawer's wonderful novel The glass room which fictionalises not only the original owners of the house, but it's life story over many years. More recently, we learned that house had been refurbished and was now open for viewing. (I should add that the Tugendhat family disapprove of Mawer's novel, presumably because the behaviour of the fictional characters could be assumed to have been that of the real ones.)

The house sits on a wonderful hillside site and was designed by Mies to make the most of its position. It is on three storeys: the top floor has the entrance and bedrooms, the middle floor is a single vast living space (Mawer's glass room) and the bottom floor contains service areas. Here is the entrance with the front door tucked away behind the curving milky glass corridor. The sleek horizontal lines and complete lack of ornament are immediately apparent.

You enter a square, sparse lobby and see the bedrooms of the people who commissioned the house, Greta and Fritz Tugendhat. This is Greta's room: cool white predominates, with original built-in furniture in rich rosewood, a mirror and just one picture.

You return along the corridor with its beautiful diffused light and then descend to the main floor.

You now emerge at the back of the glass room, to use Simon Mawer's name for it. It is a surprisingly large rectangle with curtains hanging from tracks in the ceiling which can be used to divide the space and with a fixed screen - the onyx wall - partially separating the front and back. At the side of the house is a conservatory/green house which blurs the boundary between inside and outside - some of what you see is in the conservatory, some is trees in the garden. Out of view, over to the left, is a library/study area.

Behind you as you look at the view above is an informal seating area with a sort of oriental feeling.

The front part of the room has easy chairs and the vast window to the right drops down into the wall to partially eliminate, in a different way, the separation between inside and outside.

Here is the onyx wall, quite pale in shade but apparently taking on more fiery colours when touched by the setting sun.

This is the view across the back of the glass room, illustrating the most pioneering feature of the house: its structural strength comes from a network of steel columns, chromed in the upper parts of the house but unadorned in the bottom floor. This had been used for offices and shops for many years, but it was the first time it had been used in a private house.

The final area is the dining room, partially separated by a curving wooden wall.

And this is the view of Brno from the terrace on the top floor: the castle can be seen on its hill on the right, while the cathedral occupies a promontory on the left.

Reflections

We had seen drawings and pictures of Villa Tugendhat, but we were still surprised by how big it was. It was wonderful how spaces just flowed into each other in the glass room and how the whole main floor has no doors (apart from to the conservatory). The uniform pale colour scheme, with only wood and chrome to provide contrast, still seems remarkably beautiful and modern. And there is an almost complete absence of ornament - a few vases of flowers, but almost no paintings or photographs. Overall, I would have to say it is one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. 

Practicalities

You can visit the garden at any time the villa is open (Tuesday to Sunday, 1000 - 1800) but you can only see the interior by booking up to joining a guided tour. These can be booked online on the Villa Tugendhat website, which recommends booking at least two months in advance. We left it a bit late, but by emailing managed to have ourselves added on to a tour in German.

While you are there

We discovered this too late to profit from our knowledge, but the nearby house owned by Greta Tugendhat's father, Villa Löw-Beer, has recently been restored and is now open to the public as a museum. It dates from the art nouveau period, but it is not too clear what original features remain. A visit would surely enrich any visit to Villa Tugendhat however.