Alreay when I planned our day trip to Brno - the capital of Moravia (Czech Republic) - I realized that it could be quite exciting for our children. However, reality exceeded my high expectations.
This city’s system of underground tunnels – to which you enter from the square Zelný trh - is truly magnificent. Like in Znojmo this space was originally built as storerooms but currently houses presentations of alchemy, wine making, historic light sources plus medieval justice and punishment.
A separate part of the underworld can be found in Kostnice u Svatého Jakuba, inaugurated in 2012. With the bones of up to 50.000 people - dead in late medieval plagues or the Thirty Year’s War, this is the second largest charnel house (ossuary) in Europe.
The almost artistic presentation of old bones in the charnel house stand in sharp contrast to the mummies in the Capuchin Crypt of the town. Here, the bodies of monks and noblemen have been mummified through natural air drying, resulting in a truly horror movie-like image of death.
I should perhaps point out that Brno is a prosperous city. While we were learning more about its history and its earlier generations of inhabitants, all squares of the town centre were filled with political parties in an absolutely vivid election campaign.
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As a bonus during our day in Brno, we also visited the traveling international exhibition Bodies Revealed, where human anatomy is explained through the bodies of real dead people. A more than fitting end to a day which had revolved around the theme of life and death.
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Svensk version
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