Czech Republic

Stepping into the 19th-century museum model of the Czech city of Brno will transport you back in time and allow you to experience the city's history firsthand.

The museum model of Brno is like a living organism that opens the door to the past and allows you to discover the secrets of life and culture in this historic gem of Central Europe.

Archaeological evidence indicates that the area around the city has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Nearby, in a cave known as Sveduv Stul ("Swedish Table"), remains of Neanderthal man were discovered. Additionally, a campsite of Cro-Magnon mammoth hunters dating back to 30,000 BCE was found at Dolní Vestonice, located on the edge of the Pavlov Hills, 30 km to the south. The locality also contains remnants of Celtic and other tribal settlements, as well as numerous Slav settlements from the 5th and 6th centuries. The name Brno is derived from the Celtic word brynn, meaning "hill town."

The growth of Brno was significantly stimulated by German colonization, which began in the 13th century. The community officially became a city in 1243. During the 14th century, the margraves of Moravia gained and maintained control of Brno, which was dominated by the castle on Špilberk. The city withstood several sieges, including those by the Hussites in 1428, by George of Poděbrady in 1464, and by the Swedes under Lennart Torstenson in 1645. In the Silesian War of the Austrian Succession (1740-45), Brno was invaded once more and was later occupied by the French in 1805, shortly before Napoleon's victory over the combined Austrian and Russian armies at Slavkov (Austerlitz), 11 km southeast of Brno.

Under the Habsburg rule, Špilberk Castle was converted into a political prison and a military hospital. In 1832, the Italian poet Silvio Pellico exposed the dreadful conditions of the Špilberk dungeons in his book Le mie prigioni ("My Prisons"), where members of the Italian patriot group, the Carbonari, were imprisoned by the Austrians. Brno is also notable for being the place where the monk-geneticist Gregor Mendel developed his theory of heredity in 1865 at the local monastery. Additionally, the city was the lifelong home of the composer Leoš Janáček.

Despite the devastation caused by wars, many historic buildings in Brno have endured, including the churches of St. Thomas and St. James, as well as the Gothic church of the Augustinian monastery. Tugendhat House, designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1930, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. The old town features narrow streets surrounded by a ring of boulevards, with several modern housing projects situated beyond this perimeter.

Before World War II, the population of Brno was predominantly German, but it is now mainly Czech. Brno has evolved into an educational and industrial hub, hosting Masaryk University since 1919 and gaining renown for its international trade fairs. The city's industries produce textiles and metallurgical products, including the ZB light machine gun, which was later manufactured in Enfield, England, as the Bren machine gun.

The Brno City Museum provided a plastic model of the city of Brno and its surroundings, which was created by the Catholic priest George Wiesner in the years 1824-1825. 

It is made of several materials – wood, paper, and the whole model is painted with watercolor paints. Its dimensions are 77.3 x 96.6 x 10 cm. Two documents were also attached to the model. The first with the text of how the model was created and how it got to the public, the second with explanations of what is on the model and which number belongs to which building or street. The model depicts the streets and famous buildings of the city of Brno in the 19th century and the Špilberk Castle. The model was registered as an old museum property and was acquired by the institution (Brno City Museum) as part of the dislocation of collections between the Moravian Museum and the Brno City Museum in the 1930s.

SOURCES:

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Brno". Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 Jun. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/place/Brno. Accessed 21 March 2023.

KUČA, Karel. Města a městečka v Čechách, na Moravě a ve Slezsku. Praha: Libri, 1996. ISBN 978-80-7277-410-48.

Tomáš Linhart´s request to Jindřich Chatrný (chatrny@spilberk.cz), Brno City Museum, Brno, 21.02.2022