Brno, CZ

The Church of St. Thomas is actually much older than it looks. The Baroque facades on it now are just that, facades, that were installed in the 17th Century to hide battle damage from the Thirty Years War. The original foundation (and presumably structure) of the church dates to 1356, having been consecrated in the presence of Holy Roman Emperor Karluv IV, although the church had been planned under his father, John of Luxembourg. Today the church is next to the entrance to Brno's system of catacombs.

Hrad Spilberk, in spite of its name "Hrad," or "castle," is really more an 18th-Century fort, as it was very gradually rebuilt in that century and to some extent the one preceding it. The original foundations, however, date to 1277, giving the site medieval heritage. It has actually had a number of uses over the years. Until 1959, it was a military base, and for the period of 1620-1855 it was also used as a prison, where a number of abuses were committed, especially against political prisoners. It reprised this role during World War I (1914-1918) and during the Nazi regime (1938-1945), when it also continued to serve as a barracks. Since 1959, the castle has been a museum. This is the main entrance to the walls, which surprisingly has a normal street number, visible on the right, property number in red and white, and street number (for orientation) in blue.

This is the entrance to the castle keep, such as it is.

If you circle the parapet, you eventually find 18th-Century fortifications with cannon, as well as some modern-day restaurants. This view is looking at the keep, though, with the cannon out of the frame behind and to the right, and the restaurants out of the frame to the left.

Here is one of the artillery pieces, although I don't know if it's original.

Around the same time that DPP in Prague were receiving delivery of Skoda 14t trams, another variant called the 13t was being delivered to Brno. This is #1928.

ZSSK are, for the moment, the national railway of Slovakia. Many of their trains, with their locomotives, still venture into the Czech Republic, especially on Eurocity services. This one would take me back to Prague, with Class 350 electric #350020-4 on the point.

The historic capital of Moravia, and the second largest city in the Czech Republic, is Brno, and accordingly it has a sizeable station. This was taken with my cameraphone at dusk while in motion, hence the blurring and strange lighting.

This was the departure from Brno.