Brno's Villa Quarter

Brno Central Cemetery: Legends in Stone

62 perc2.3 km9 megálló

Walk through Ústřední hřbitov, Brno's vast Central Cemetery, to meet the people who built the city's identity: Gregor Mendel, composer Leoš Janáček, architect Bohuslav Fuchs, Brno's first Czech mayor, the founder of its public library, a Moravian Karst explorer, one of Czechoslovakia's great postwar poets, the founder of Czech Slavic studies, and the man who opened Brno's first Czech bookshop, alongside memorials to civic and wartime sacrifice and Ernst Wiesner's Functionalist crematorium.

The Story of Brno

58 perc2.5 km7 megálló

A walk through eight centuries of Brno's history, from its medieval founding to the fortress that became one of the Habsburg Empire's most feared prisons. This walk visits the city's Gothic cathedral and Old Town Hall, the last surviving fragment of the medieval city walls, the civic square where a column still marks a devastating 17th-century plague and where both world wars left their mark, a statue of the medieval margrave who once ruled the city, a Gothic church built over a vast underground ossuary, and Špilberk Castle, whose walls hold the story of a legendary siege and two centuries as a political prison. Seven stops through Brno's historic core, roughly eighty minutes on foot.

From Loom to Tugendhat

76 perc3.9 km7 megálló

For two centuries Brno was the Moravian Manchester, a city that dressed an empire in fine wool. This walk follows the money: from Freedom Square, where the first cloth manufacturer lived, past the Offermann house and the old factory quarter along Křenová and Cejl, where weavers worked, trained and went on strike, then up to Černá Pole and two houses of one textile family, ending at Vila Tugendhat. Start on Freedom Square, a short walk from the main railway station or any central tram stop.

Brno on Stage

67 perc3.2 km7 megálló

Brno's compact historic center hides a remarkable concentration of stages — from the oldest theatre building in Central Europe, where an eleven-year-old Mozart once performed, to the modern opera house built for native son Leoš Janáček. This walk links seven landmarks of music and theatre across a few central blocks: historic and contemporary playhouses, the home of the Brno Philharmonic and the site of its new concert hall under construction, and the garden pavilion where Janáček lived and taught. Seven stops, a little over an hour on foot. The walk starts at Besední dům on Komenského náměstí, a short walk from Brno's main railway station.

Nikolsburg

Mikulov: Castle, Cellars and the Moravian Jerusalem

62 perc2.8 km7 megálló

Mikulov sits on the last limestone hills before the Austrian border, and for four centuries it was two towns at once: the seat of the Dietrichstein princes, who ruled Moravia from the castle on the rock, and Nikolsburg, home to the chief rabbis of Moravia and one of the most important Jewish communities in Central Europe. This walk climbs to the castle and its legendary wine barrel, crosses the arcaded main square to the Dietrichstein burial vault, turns into the old Jewish town for the Upper Synagogue and the terraced cemetery above it, takes in the view from Goat Hill, and ends among the limestone crags of the Turold quarry-park. Seven stops, about an hour on foot.

Třebíč

Třebíč's Jewish Quarter

37 perc1.2 km4 megálló

Walk the narrow lanes of Zámostí, Třebíč's UNESCO-listed former Jewish quarter — one of Europe's best-preserved Jewish urban ensembles, and the only Jewish monument outside Israel on the World Heritage list. Starting at the Basilica of St. Procopius, the walk crosses into the quarter's self-governing streets, visits the Rear Synagogue and Seligmann-Bauer's preserved household, and climbs to the hillside Jewish cemetery, the community's own resting place, to close.

Znojmo

Best of Znojmo

55 perc1.0 km5 megálló

Walk through the compact old town of Znojmo, a medieval royal town on a rocky spur above the Dyje River gorge. The tour starts at Vlkova Tower, a medieval tower on the town walls at the lower corner of Masaryk Square, and climbs the square to the Gothic Town Hall Tower, above the tunnels of the Znojmo Underground. It continues to St Nicholas' Church and the Karolina Gate viewpoint, passes the old Minorite monastery, and ends at the castle and the Romanesque Rotunda of St Catherine. Five stops, about one kilometre, roughly an hour.

Kroměříž

Kroměříž: The Archbishops' Garden City

95 perc3.1 km10 megálló

Kroměříž is a small Moravian town with an outsized inheritance: for centuries it was the summer seat of the Bishops and Archbishops of Olomouc, who turned it into a garden city of palaces, churches, and parks now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This walk crosses town from the Baroque Flower Garden — its colonnade, Rotunda, and maze — through the arcaded main square and two churches, to the Archbishop's Château, finishing with a stroll into the landscape park behind it. Ten stops across about three kilometres, tracing how one dynasty of churchmen shaped an entire town.

Olomouc

The Fountains of Olomouc

37 perc1.5 km5 megálló

Meet Olomouc's six baroque water gods — and the playful modern outsider who joined them in 2002 — on a walk through the historic centre's two grand squares. Vain Caesar and mighty Hercules hold court outside the Town Hall; feuding Neptune and Jupiter face off on the Lower Square; quick-footed Mercury and the sea-god Triton mind their own corners nearby. Along the way, you'll also pass the UNESCO-listed Holy Trinity Column, the whimsical Astronomical Clock, and the twin-spired Cathedral of St. Wenceslas.

Litomyšl

Best of Litomyšl

60 perc1.2 km7 megálló

A compact walk through Litomyšl, the East Bohemian town where the composer Bedřich Smetana was born. You start at his monument at the lower end of the long arcaded Smetana Square and walk up through it. Then you climb gently to the castle hill: the Gothic church of the town's first monastery, the terraced Monastery Gardens, the Baroque Piarist church, the brewery flat where Smetana was born, and finally the UNESCO-listed Renaissance château with its sgraffito walls. The start is about ten minutes on foot from the railway station.