There is a numer of remarkable monuments in the nearby area of the hotel which are worth visiting.
The castle is situated on the top of the hill in the central part of the city. It was established in the second half of the 13th century by the Czech king Premysl Otakar II. In the 14th century the castle served as the seat of the Moravian margraves of Luxembourg. It was used as a strategic castle in the 15th century during the Hussite wars. Over the course of the centuries Spilberk Castle has changed several times. During the 17th century the original gothic castle was transformed into baroque fortress.
Among the permanent exhibitions based in the castle are:
Casemates, which show baroque fortress architecture and imprisonment of the Josephine period. After the Battle of White Mountain the prison was used to keep Moravian rebels who fought against the Hapsburg sovereigns. Baron Francis Trenck was among the renowned prisoners. Emperor Josef II used the fortress as a prison for most dangerous criminals. Later the cells were built in which the prisoners were chained to the walls. In 1790 the successor of Josef II, Leopold II, abolished life imprisonment in the lower casemates. The upper casemates were used as prison till the middle of the 19th century.
Spilberk – prison of the nations (prison of the Austrian monarchy) – exhibition is situated in the northern and western wing of the castle.
Brno at Spilberku – exhibition is situated in the northern and western wing of the castle.
From renaissance to modernism – exposition of art dating from 1570 to 1900
For new Brno – architecture of Brno from 1919 to 1939.
Spilberk from castle to fortress – stages of architectural development and history of architecture.
The monument is situated on the top of the hill Petrov in the south-western part of the city’s center. It is one of the most famous architectural monuments in the southern Moravia. The towers of the cathedral are 84 meters high. Most of the interior is made in baroque style. On the contrary the outside of the castle with the towers is built in neo-gothic style. The castle was constructed by the architect August Kirstein. On the face of the building there is a Latin quotation from the gospel of Matthew. The cathedral is used by the episcopate of Brno.
The monument is located in the urban neighborhood called “Cerne Pole” on street Cernopolni 45. The architectural design was created by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1928, who was invited by the Tugendhat family. The villa was built in a very short time in 1930. It is one of the prominent examples of the functionalism in architecture.
The building has three flours in spite of the fact that it looks like a single-storey house from the outside. On the upper floor there is a sleeping room of the Tugendhats and the guest room. There is a living space and representative space in the middle floor. Currently the ground floor is not accessible for the public; it was previously used for the household and servants. The construction of the whole building including the interiors and the garden cost 5 million Czech crowns.