Free-time Activities
Brno offers a lot of activities both inside and outside the city. You can also explore history and sights of other Czech towns that are well connected by railways and roads. Some of the favourite activities among visitors, including astronomers and scientists, are listed below.
HANGAR climbing and bouldering center
One of the largest climbing and bouldering centers in Europe with 1400 m2 of more than 200 bouldering problems of different difficulties (5a-7c), including special Hangar challenges. Hangar is a "home" gym of the world-renowned climber Adam Ondra coming from Brno.
Location: Pražákova 53.
Boat trip on the Brno Dam
Take the boat trip along the Svratka river, all the way to the castle Veveří and back (alternatively you can walk the whole way on foot). Castle Veveří is one of the oldest and the largest castle complexes in the Czech Republic. It was also visited three times by Winston Churchill.
Starting point: Brno lake port, Přístavní 40
In the footsteps of Johann Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
The “farther” of genetics, who established three laws of genetics-inheritance based on his experiments with the cross-breeding of the pea plant. Mendel was born in the Silesian town of Hynčice, close to Nový Jičín, and spent a large portion of his active life at the Augustinian abbey of St. Thomas in Old Brno. He passed away in Brno and his grave can be found at the central cemetery. You can follow the places of his work and life in Brno on the website.
In the footsteps of Kurt Gödel (1906-1978)
A world-famous mathematician and logician was actually born in Brno in 1906. His family had a background in the then traditional textile industry in Brno, which also lent Brno its nickname as the Moravian Manchester. Gödel, who is the author of the famous two theorems on incompleteness, had a rich life and spent the second half of his life in Princeton, where he was Einstein’s good friend. You can find more information on the website.
He was born on April 28, 1906 (120th anniversary in 2026) on Pekařská street number 5.
In the footsteps of Ernst Mach (1938-1916)
Ernst Mach, the Austrian-Czech physicist and philosopher, laid the foundations of the supersonic motion commonly studied in modern astrophysics - from the Galactic center (accretion-flow properties, known bow-shock sources) to galaxy clusters and beyond. He was born in 1838 in Brno-Chrlice, at that time a part of the Austrian empire. He contributed largely to the physics of shock waves and criticized Newton's absolute space and time - foreshadowing the arrival of Einstein's general relativity and the four-dimensional spacetime.
He died on February 19, 1916 in Vaterstetten, Bavaria, Germany (110th anniversary since his death in 2026) .
Hiking in the Moravian carst
Moravian carst lies north of Brno and is one of the most significant carst regions in central Europe with the area of 92 km2. The carst boasts with about thousand caves, lime formations, canyons, sinkholes, and it hosts the famous Macocha gorge, which is the deepest abyss in Central Europe with the depth of 138.5 meters. One can also access the gorge with a boat along the Punkva river in the Punkva cave.
Brno Functionalism Tour
Take a stroll through Brno and explore its unique architectural heritage, especially its unique functionalist villas from the first half of the 20th century. These include four architecturally precious villas: Mies van der Rohe's Villa Tugenhat, then villa Löw-Beer, Ernst Wiesner's villa Stiassny, and Dušan Jurkovič's villa.
Brno Underground Tour
Brno has unique underground spaces of a different purpose and origin. These include:
- Water tanks in Žlutý kopec
- the Labyrinth under the Vegetable Market
- the Ossuary at the Church of St James: second largest in Europe
- the Mint Master’s Cellar
- nuclear shelter from the cold war: 10-Z Bunker
Exploring Prague and other Czech towns
You can take a 3-hour train ride from Brno to Prague and explore its unique history, including fingerprints of personalities such as Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Christian Doppler, and many others. Furthermore, you may extend your trip to include the famous spa town Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) or indulge yourself in the fairy-tale vibes of Český Krumlov. These are three out of seventeen UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Czech Republic. The full list is on the website below.
