Moravia
Brno, the capital of Moravia, dates from the 13th century and has the fine Moravian Museum; an important Augustinian Monastery where the great geneticist, Mendel, was Abbot; the Capuchin Church with its mummies; and the Gothic `pilberk Castle. A large number of international trade fairs take place in the Brno Exhibition Centre. To the northeast is the Moravsky krás, the area of great limestone caves around Blansko. To the northwest, the Gothic castle of Pernstejn is probably closest to most people’s idea of what a medieval castle should look like; the hour-long train journey to it up the Svratka Valley is an attractive trip. Southwest of Brno, three towns in particular stand out as tourist locations: Moravsky Krumlov with its Mucha Gallery, including great pictures, such as ‘Slovanska epopej’ (The Slav Epic), Slavkov (Austerlitz), near the Napoleonic battlefield, and Bucovice, whose castle features the remarkable Zajeci sal (The Hall of Hares) with murals of hares revenging themselves on men and dogs.
In the Vysocina (Bohemian-Moravian Uplands) to the east, the towns of Telc (a UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site) and Slavonice are two of the most perfect examples of Renaissance towns in Europe. Telc, including the Zamec (Castle), was completely rebuilt after the fire of 1530; medieval arcades surround the town square with its gabled and pedimented houses. Slavonice is another old town founded on silver mining. In Zdar nad Sazavou, about 40km (25 miles) northeast of Jihlava, the Cistercian monastery and pilgrimage church dedicated to sv Jan Nepomucky (St John of Nepomuk) was designed by Prague-born Giovanni Santini, one of the greatest artists of the Czech Counter-Reformation, who married Gothic and Baroque forms, often with a humour lacking in other architects. Nearby in Ostrov nad Oslavou, he designed a hostinec (pub) shaped like the letter ‘W’ to honour a fellow architect, and the village church at Obyctov, shaped like a turtle, one of the Virgin Mary’s more obscure symbols.
The area between the small wine-making towns of Lednice and Valtice was once a possession of the Grand Dukes of Liechtenstein. Several impressive castles, landscaped parks and structural follies are dotted over an area of 250 sq km (96 sq miles), broken up by numerous ponds and forests. To the west, the area between Znojmo and Vranov on the River Dyji (Thaya in German) is an area of untouched river valley, now a joint National Park on both sides of the Austrian border. Northeast of Brno, Kromeriz (also accessible as a day trip from Prague) is a beautifully preserved Baroque town; its great Bishop’s Palace includes an important art collection (including paintings from the auction after the execution of the English Charles I), and superb water gardens which run down to the banks of the Morava river.
Despite many ecological disaster zones and the great – and unpleasant – industrial centre of Ostrava, northern Moravia has much to offer the independent traveller. Olomouc, now happily recovered from its era as a Soviet garrison, is once again an attractive university town noted as much for its parks as for its Baroque churches, sculptures and fountains. The surrounding Haná region is strongly agricultural, with many villages having attractive harvest festivals in late September. In the extreme north, the Jeseniky Mountains are an eastern extension of the Bohemian Krkonose. Lazne Jesenik is one of the many famous Czech Silesian spas founded in the 19th century; this area is excellent for hiking, with rocky outcrops, cave systems and monuments. To the east of Ostrava, the hilly Beskydy region (which extends through Poland into the Ukraine) is the area of the Vlachs (Wallachs), whose culture still survives in folklore and architecture. This area is excellent for hiking and winter sports. The excellent open-air skansen (Folk Museum) at Roznov pod Radhostem, begun in 1925, is the largest in the country; another good skansen is at Velke Karlovice. Valchs architecture can be found to the south in the villages in the Vsetinska Becva valley, including Bzove, Jezerne and Ratkov.
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