Brno

Brno takes 1–2 days: the historic core around Zelný trh and Špilberk is walked in a day, while Villa Tugendhat, Mies van der Rohe's 1930 house, needs a second day and a booking made ahead. The hub for getting in is Prague, 2 h 30–37 min away by train.

The train from Prague leaves every hour from Praha hlavní nádraží and reaches Brno hlavní nádraží in 2 h 30–37 min, tickets from from €4.90 (119 CZK). Brno has its own airport, Brno-Tuřany (BRQ), but it runs only two year-round routes — London Stansted and Málaga — so most visitors from further afield still come through Prague. From the station, the centre is a walk away, straight towards the squares of the old core.

The first square on the way is Zelný trh, a vegetable market that has traded every day since the city itself began. A Baroque Parnas fountain stands at its centre, ringed by the same kind of vegetable and flower stalls that have stood there since the Middle Ages. Walking through is free, at any hour.

Above the square, on its own hill, rise the two towers of the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul, known as Petrov. Its bells strike noon at eleven, not twelve — legend says the citizens of Brno tricked the besieging Swedish general in 1645, who had promised to call off his siege if the city hadn't fallen by midday. Entry to both towers and the treasury is €2.45, open summer (May–Sep) Mon–Sat 10–18:15, Sun 12–18:15; winter (Oct–Apr) Mon–Sat 11–16:45, Sun 12–16:45.

From the cathedral the way leads to a second hill, to Špilberk fortress. The city bought the castle in 1560 and turned it into a stronghold; after 1783 it became a jail for serious and political prisoners from across Austria-Hungary, earning the nickname 'the prison of nations'. A combined ticket for the casemates and the museum is €10.65, open museum & casemates daily 9–18 (Apr–Sep) / 10–17 (Oct–Mar).

Downhill from Špilberk, by St James's Square, is the entrance to an ossuary found only in 2001 during work on the square — the second largest by number of burials in Europe, after Paris. A ticket is €6.55, open daily 9:30–18 (last entry 17:30), tours every 30 min. This closes the loop for day one; the second day goes outside the core, to the villa that's the reason to stay in Brno longer than an afternoon.

Villa Tugendhat, designed for the Tugendhat family between 1928 and 1930 by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, has been on the UNESCO list since 2001 — the only example of modern architecture from the Czech Republic on it. Entry needs timed slot booked ahead: open Wed–Sun 9–17, last entry 16:30, closed Monday and Tuesday. A ticket is €20.50. The same day has room for the Mendel Museum too, in the Augustinian abbey where Gregor Mendel grew peas for his experiments on inheritance: the core exhibition is €2.45, open Apr–Oct Tue–Sun 10–18; Nov–Mar Tue–Sun 10–17.