14 Things to Do in Brno, Czechia’s Second City

Brno rewards two days, and the two bookings to make before you go are Villa Tugendhat and nothing else, because everything else here can be walked into on the day. The UNESCO-listed Mies van der Rohe house sells out within minutes of each release; Špilberk Castle, the ossuary under St James, the Capuchin Crypt and the medieval labyrinth under the Vegetable Market all take walk-ups. Brno is 205 km (127.4 mi) south-east of Prague and 130 km (80.8 mi) north of Vienna, which makes it the easiest Czech city to reach from Austria. Czechia uses the Czech koruna, not the euro, so every price below is in koruna first, converted at the rate of 10 September 2026.

Brno has 404,296 residents, making it the second largest city in the Czech Republic after Prague and the capital of Moravia. It is a university city rather than a tourist city, which is why the beer costs less, the queues are shorter and the wine list is longer than anything you will find in Bohemia.

Things to do in Brno

The 14 things to do in Brno are listed below, with the one that has to be booked in advance first.

1. Villa Tugendhat. Villa Tugendhat is the house Ludwig Mies van der Rohe built for Greta and Fritz Tugendhat between 1928 and 1930, and it is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as one of the founding buildings of modern architecture. Interiors can only be seen on a guided tour bought in advance: the 60-minute basic tour covers the living space and the bedroom floor at CZK 450 (about €18.55, $21.55, £15.95), reduced CZK 270 and family CZK 1,050, and the 90-minute extended tour adds the technical rooms at CZK 500 (about €20.60, $23.95, £17.70), reduced CZK 320 and family CZK 1,200. A 40-minute exterior and garden tour costs CZK 200. The villa opens daily except Monday, 10am to 6pm, and interior tickets sell out within minutes of going on sale, so book the moment your dates are fixed.
2. Špilberk Castle. Špilberk sits on the hill above the centre and has been a royal castle, a Habsburg fortress and one of the harshest prisons in the empire, and it now houses the Brno City Museum. A combined ticket costs CZK 260 (about €10.70, $12.45, £9.20) for adults, CZK 155 (about €6.40, $7.40, £5.50) for children, students and seniors, and CZK 600 for a family. The grounds and park are open daily 6am to 10pm and cost nothing; the museum, exhibitions, lookout tower, Royal Chapel and Square Tower open daily 10am to 6pm; the casemates and bastion can be walked self-guided daily 9am to 9pm, which is the longer window and needs no waiting for a tour to start. A new section of restored casemates opened in August 2026 with an exhibition on the bombing of Brno in 1944 and 1945.
3. Cathedral of St Peter and Paul. The cathedral on Petrov hill is the silhouette on Brno’s postcards and on the Czech ten-koruna coin, Gothic in origin with the twin neo-Gothic spires added between 1904 and 1909. Its bells ring noon at 11am every day, and the reason is the Swedish siege of 1645: General Torstensson had set himself a deadline of noon on 15 August, the defenders under Louis Raduit de Souches rang the noon chime an hour early, and the Swedish army packed up and left. Be on Petrov at 10.55am at least once. The crypt and the tower are ticketed separately from the nave.
4. Ossuary at the Church of St James. The ossuary under St James holds the remains of more than 50,000 people, which makes it the second largest in Europe after the Paris catacombs, and almost nobody outside Brno knows it exists. Its three chambers were built in the 17th century, forgotten, rediscovered by accident in 2001 and opened to visitors in 2012, and the dead in them come from the Thirty Years’ War, the Swedish siege and the plague and cholera epidemics that followed. Admission is CZK 160 (about €6.60, $7.65, £5.65), with reductions for students under 26, seniors over 65, disabled visitors and children under 15. Groups of six or more have to reserve.
5. Capuchin Crypt. The crypt under the Capuchin monastery on Kapucínské náměstí holds mummified Capuchin friars and Brno nobility, preserved by the air circulating through the vaults rather than by embalming, and laid out much as they were left. It is a short walk from the main station and from Zelný trh, and it takes half an hour. It is not a place for young children.
6. Labyrinth under the Vegetable Market. A system of medieval cellars and corridors runs under Zelný trh on several levels, used for storing food and wine, for hiding during sieges, and at one point as a torture room. Admission is CZK 160 (about €6.60, $7.65, £5.65) for adults and CZK 80 for children, students, seniors and disabled visitors. Bring a layer, because it stays cold underground whatever the weather is doing above.
7. Zelný trh. The Vegetable Market has been trading on the same sloping square since the 13th century and it still sells produce and flowers on weekday mornings rather than souvenirs, which is rarer in Central Europe than it should be. The Parnas Fountain of 1695 in the middle is the landmark. Come before 11am if you want it working rather than photographed.
8. Náměstí Svobody and the astronomical clock. Freedom Square is Brno’s main square, a triangle of 19th-century facades and cafés, and in the middle of it stands a black granite column that is the city’s astronomical clock. Every day at 11am it releases a single glass marble, which one person in the crowd gets to keep, and the hour is the same 11am that saved the city from the Swedes. It is the strangest public monument in the country and the crowd around it is half the entertainment.
9. Old Town Hall, the Brno Dragon and the wheel. The Old Town Hall’s Gothic portal of 1510 has a deliberately bent central pinnacle, and the passage inside holds the two objects every Brno child grows up with: the Brno Dragon, which is a stuffed crocodile of uncertain provenance hanging from the ceiling, and a cartwheel a wheelwright is said to have made and rolled from Lednice to Brno in a day to win a bet. The tower gives a view over the centre.
10. Moravian Karst and the Punkva Caves. The Moravian Karst begins about 30 km (18.6 mi) north of Brno and holds the country’s most visited cave system, where the Punkva Caves tour ends with a boat ride on an underground river at the foot of the Macocha Abyss, a collapsed sinkhole 138 metres deep. Tickets are timed and sell out in summer, so book online rather than driving up on spec. Half a day is the minimum, a full day if you add the cable car and the upper viewpoint.
11. Moravian Gallery. The Moravian Gallery is the second largest art museum in the Czech Republic and runs across several buildings in the centre, covering fine art, applied art, graphic design and photography. Its Governor’s Palace and Pražák Palace sites are both a few minutes from Zelný trh. The permanent collections are free of charge, which is unusual and not widely known.
12. Museum of Romani Culture. Brno holds the only museum in the world dedicated to Romani history and culture that is run as a state institution, and it covers the origins, migration, traditions and 20th-century persecution of Roma in the Czech lands. It sits in the Cejl district, about fifteen minutes from the centre, and it is the most serious thing in Brno that visitors walk past.
13. VIDA! Science Centre. VIDA! is the hands-on science centre on the Brno Exhibition Centre grounds, with several hundred interactive exhibits, a science theatre and shows scheduled through the day. It is the reliable rainy-day answer with children and it holds them for three hours or more.
14. Brno Zoo. The zoo on Mniší hora, north-west of the centre, is spread over a wooded hillside and specialises in animals of the northern hemisphere, with a Beringia exhibit, big cats and a walk-through area. The terrain is steep, so it is a real walk rather than a stroll.

The best museums and galleries in Brno

The strongest collection in Brno is the Moravian Gallery, and the four listed below cover the rest of what the city keeps indoors.

• Moravian Gallery. The second largest art museum in the country, across several central buildings, with permanent collections free of charge.
• Brno City Museum at Špilberk Castle. The city’s own history, the prison casemates and the lookout tower, on a combined ticket at CZK 260 for adults and CZK 155 reduced.
• Moravian Museum, Dietrichstein Palace. The oldest museum in Moravia, founded in 1817, covering regional natural history, archaeology and numismatics on Zelný trh.
• Anthropos Pavilion. A separate Moravian Museum site in Pisárky devoted to the origins of humankind, built around a full-size mammoth model, and the single most memorable exhibit in Brno for anyone aged eight to twelve.

Things to do in Brno with kids

Brno works well with children because three of its four best-known sights are underground or up a tower, which is a category children rarely argue with. The four below are ordered by how long they hold attention.

1. VIDA! Science Centre. Hundreds of interactive exhibits plus scheduled science shows, indoors, with a café. This fills a whole wet day.
2. Brno Zoo. A wooded hillside site with a Beringia exhibit and a walk-through area. Half a day, and steep enough to count as exercise.
3. The Anthropos Pavilion and the mammoth. One large, unforgettable object and an hour of prehistory around it.
4. The astronomical clock at 11am. Free, five minutes long, and one child in the crowd goes home with a glass marble. Stand near the lower opening.

The Brno Observatory and Planetarium on Kraví hora runs scheduled star shows and telescope sessions, which is worth checking if you have an evening spare and the sky is clear.

Where to eat and drink in Brno

Brno drinks wine as well as beer, which is the real difference from Bohemia: South Moravia grows about 96% of Czech wine, and the city’s wine bars pour Veltlínské zelené, Ryzlink and Pálava from vineyards under an hour away. Order a Moravian white with dinner at least once instead of defaulting to a lager.

• Bar, který neexistuje, Dvořákova. The Bar That Doesn’t Exist is Brno’s landmark cocktail bar, with several hundred bottles behind the counter and a kitchen running alongside it. It opens Sunday to Tuesday 5pm to 2am, Wednesday and Thursday 5pm to 2.30am, and Friday and Saturday 5pm to 3.30am. Reserve at weekends.
• The Zelný trh stalls, weekday mornings. Produce, cheese and flowers from Moravian growers, sold to people who live here. This is where to assemble a lunch rather than buy a sit-down one.
• A Moravian wine bar, anywhere in the centre. The category matters more than the address, and the city tourism office publishes a current list of the ones worth walking to.

For dishes, order svíčková na smetaně, marinated beef sirloin in cream sauce with bread dumplings and cranberries, and guláš with dumplings if the weather is against you. Our guide to traditional Czech cuisine covers what else is on a Czech menu.

Where to stay in Brno

Stay in Brno-střed, the central district, because Špilberk, both squares, the ossuary, the crypt and the labyrinth are all inside a twenty-minute walk of each other and Villa Tugendhat is one tram ride away. The three areas below are the realistic choices.

• Brno-střed, the city centre. Everything on the list except the zoo, VIDA! and the Karst is walkable from here, and the tram network starts at your door. The Grandhotel Brno opposite the main station and the Barceló Brno Palace near Zelný trh both sit in this zone.
• Around the Exhibition Centre and Pisárky. The trade-fair district west of the centre is where the larger hotels are, including Hotel International Brno, and it is next to VIDA! and the Anthropos Pavilion. Rates here swing hard during trade fairs.
• Žabovřesky and Královo Pole. The residential districts north and north-west of the centre are quieter and cheaper, with frequent trams into the middle. Budget fifteen minutes each way.

Brno rooms cost well under Prague rooms of the same standard, and the city’s calendar is the thing to watch rather than the season: the Exhibition Centre’s trade fairs and the Grand Prix weekend at the Masaryk Circuit both empty the city of beds. Compare hotels in Brno as soon as your dates are set.

How to get to Brno

Brno is 205 km (127.4 mi) from Prague and about 2 hours 30 minutes by direct train, with RegioJet, Leo Express and České dráhy all running the route and competing on price. Buses take a similar time on the D1 motorway and usually cost less. From Vienna, Brno is 130 km (80.8 mi) and roughly 1 hour 30 minutes by train or bus, which is why a lot of visitors arrive from Austria rather than from Prague. Compare trains and buses to Brno across operators in one place, because the cheapest departure changes through the day.

Brno-Tuřany Airport handles a small number of scheduled routes, so most international visitors fly into Prague or Vienna and continue by train. Inside the city, trams cover everything and run late; Villa Tugendhat, the zoo and VIDA! are all tram journeys rather than walks. If you are coming from outside the EU and would otherwise pay roaming for maps and timetables, an Airalo eSIM installs on one phone before you fly and the code HARRY5578 takes €3 off.

Day trips from Brno

Brno is the base for South Moravia, and four trips are close enough to do without changing hotel. They are listed below by travel time.

1. Moravian Karst, 30 minutes. The Punkva Caves, the underground boat ride and the Macocha Abyss. Book the timed cave ticket online.
2. Veveří Castle, 30 minutes. A medieval castle on a promontory above the Brno reservoir, reachable by boat from Bystrc in season, which is a better way to arrive than by road.
3. Lednice and Valtice, 60 minutes. The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape is a UNESCO site of chateaux, follies and parkland laid out by the Liechtensteins, and it is the finest thing in South Moravia.
4. Mikulov and the wine villages, 60 minutes. The Pálava hills, a chateau above a small baroque town, and the country’s densest concentration of vineyards.

A car makes sense for Lednice, Mikulov and the wine villages, where buses are thin and the point is to move between several places in a day; the Karst and Veveří are both fine by public transport. If you want one, compare car hire rates for a Brno or Prague pick-up, and remember that a motorway vignette is required on the D1 and that Czech drink-drive law is zero tolerance, which matters in wine country.

How many days do you need in Brno?

Two days covers Brno and three days covers Brno plus South Moravia. Day one takes Petrov at 10.55am for the bells, Zelný trh, the labyrinth, the Old Town Hall, Náměstí Svobody at 11am on a second morning if you missed the marble, and Špilberk in the afternoon. Day two takes Villa Tugendhat at whatever time your ticket says, then the ossuary, the Capuchin Crypt and the Moravian Gallery. A third day is for the Moravian Karst or the Lednice-Valtice landscape.

Is Brno expensive?

Brno is inexpensive, and cheaper than Prague on rooms, meals and drinks. The currency is the Czech koruna, not the euro, and at the rate of 10 September 2026 one euro bought about CZK 24.25. Paid attractions run from CZK 80 to CZK 500, so two adults can do Špilberk, the ossuary and the labyrinth in a day for CZK 1,160 (about €47.80, $55.50, £41.10). Cards work everywhere. Decline the offer at an ATM or a card terminal to be charged in dollars or euros, because the rate applied is always worse than your own bank’s.

Brno FAQ

What is Brno famous for?

Brno is famous for Villa Tugendhat, for the bells at Petrov that ring noon at 11am, and for being the capital of Moravia rather than a smaller version of Prague. It is also the seat of the Czech Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court, home to Masaryk University and the Brno University of Technology, and the city where Gregor Mendel bred the pea plants that founded genetics, in an abbey garden you can still visit.

How many people live in Brno?

About 404,000 people live in Brno, recorded at 404,296 in 2026, which makes it the second largest city in the Czech Republic. Figures around 379,000 that circulate online are several years out of date.

What language do they speak in Brno?

Czech is the language of Brno, with a local slang called hantec that grew out of German, Yiddish and Czech in the 19th century and survives mostly in nicknames and jokes. English is widely spoken by the student population and at the main attractions.

What time zone is Brno in?

Brno is on Central European Time, UTC+1, and moves to Central European Summer Time, UTC+2, from late March to late October.

What is the weather like in Brno?

Brno has a temperate continental climate and is slightly warmer and drier than Prague, which is why South Moravia grows wine. Summer highs from June to August generally sit in the mid-twenties Celsius, and winters hover around freezing. May, September and the September and October wine harvest weeks are the most comfortable times to come.

Is Brno safe?

Brno is a safe city, with low violent crime and the ordinary pickpocketing risk around the main station, on busy trams and at festival times. The station area is scruffier than the rest of the centre at night without being dangerous.

Is Brno worth visiting?

Brno is worth visiting, and it is worth two nights rather than a day trip. It has a UNESCO villa, the second largest ossuary in Europe, a functioning medieval market square and the wine region of the country on its doorstep, and it charges a fraction of what Prague charges for any of it. For what else the country holds, see our guides to the Czech Republic and to interesting facts of Czechia and Brno.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 5 tips below come from re-checking Brno’s 2026 prices, opening days and booking rules in September 2026, and every one of them is something the city does not put on a sign.

1. Buy Villa Tugendhat tickets the day they are released, not the week you travel. Interior access is by pre-booked guided tour only and each release sells out within minutes. The basic 60-minute tour is CZK 450 and the extended 90-minute tour CZK 500 from 1 January 2026. If you miss out, the 40-minute exterior and garden tour at CZK 200 still gets you onto the terrace.
2. Be on Petrov hill by 10.55am. The cathedral bells ring noon at 11am, every day, because the defenders rang it early on 15 August 1645 and the besieging Swedish army took it as their own deadline and left. At 11am the astronomical clock on Náměstí Svobody drops a glass marble at the same time, so you have to pick one.
3. Walk Špilberk’s casemates without a guide. The self-guided casemates and bastion open 9am to 9pm, three hours longer than the museum above them, and you do not wait for a tour to start. A combined castle ticket is CZK 260 for adults, CZK 155 reduced and CZK 600 for a family, and the new war casemates exhibition opened in August 2026.
4. The Moravian Gallery’s permanent collections cost nothing. It is the second largest art museum in the country and its standing displays are free, which is worth knowing on a wet afternoon when everything else in Brno is charging.
5. Reserve the ossuary if there are six of you. Groups of six or more have to book the St James ossuary in advance rather than turning up, and at CZK 160 a head for more than 50,000 dead it is the cheapest extraordinary thing in the city.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the team covers Czechia for independent travellers, including the tours, museum tickets, hotels, wine bars and car hire in Brno and South Moravia worth booking. We check the admission prices, opening days and koruna conversions on this page against the venues’ own listings and update it when they change.