[11] Another cultural tradition is an international fireworks competition, Ignis Brunensis,[12] which attracts tens of thousands of visitors to each display.

[13] The most visited sights of the city include the Špilberk Castle and fortress and the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul on Petrov hill, two medieval buildings that dominate the cityscape and are often depicted as its traditional symbols[citation needed].

[14][15][16] Another architectural monument of Brno is the functionalist Villa Tugendhat, which was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 2001.

Throughout its history, Brno's locals also referred to the town in other languages, including Brünn in German, ברין (Brin) in Yiddish, and Bruna in Latin.

[25] The town's direct predecessor was a fortified settlement of the Great Moravian Empire known as Staré Zámky, which was inhabited from the Neolithic Age until the early 11th century.

[clarification needed] However, Brno was the official seat of the Moravian Margraves (rulers of Moravia),[28] and later its geographical position closer to Vienna also became important.

[53] After the reestablishment of an independent Czechoslovak state after World War II, President Edvard Beneš delivered a speech in Brno demanding the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia.

Brno is located in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic, at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, and there are also several brooks flowing through it, including the Veverka, Ponávka, and Říčka.

[2] Brno is situated at the crossroads of ancient trade routes which have joined northern and southern European civilizations for centuries, and is a part of the Danube basin region.

Brno is surrounded by wooded hills on three sides; about 6,379 ha (15,763 acres) of the area of the city is forest, 28% of the total.

Due to its location between the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and the Southern Moravian lowlands (Dyje-Svratka Vale), Brno has a moderate climate.

[85] The largest ethnic groups reported (without options to choose between) were Czechs (51.6%), Moravians (18.7%), Slovaks (1.5%), Ukrainians (0.9%), Vietnamese (0.4%), and Poles (0.2%).

Brno experienced its largest increases in population during the 19th century at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and in 1919 due to a merger with surrounding municipalities.

[86] Before 1990, engineering companies were very important in Brno; since then, the city's economy has largely reoriented itself towards light industry, logistics, and services.

[96] In recent years, the quaternary sector of the economy, i.e., activities in science, research, and education, has also begun to develop in Brno.

Examples include AdMaS (Advanced Materials, Structures, and Technologies) or CETOCOEN (Center for Research on Toxic Substances in the Environment).

[97] The city cultivates this sector via supporting organisations such as the South Moravian Innovation Centre and the VUT Technology Incubator.

[110] Due to the congestion in private transport, the city is continuing to try to build more parking ramps, including underground, but these efforts have not always been successful.

Since the 1990s Brno has experienced a great cultural "rebirth": façades of historical monuments are being repaired and various exhibitions, shows, etc., are being established or extended.

Unlike smaller municipalities, in Brno annual traditional Moravian folk festivals are held in several city districts, including Židenice,[121] Líšeň,[122] and Ivanovice.

[131] Every September, Brno hosts a wine festival, Slavnosti vína, to celebrate the harvest in the surrounding wine-producing region.

They lived in fear of the dragon until one citizen managed to kill the monster by tricking it into eating a carcass filled with lime.

Since the achievement was deemed to be impossible by normal human means, the man was believed to have called on the devil for assistance, and died in poverty as a result.

[157] The city has a long association with motor racing; among other events, the Masaryk Circuit has hosted the Moto GP championship since 1965.

The 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women was played in Brno's Arena Vodova, with the Czech squad taking the silver medal.

Tennis players Barbora Krejčíková, Lucie Šafářová, Lukáš Rosol, and Jana Novotná are from Brno, as well as Michal Březina, one of the top Czech figure skaters.

[168] The Labyrinth under Zelný trh, a system of underground corridors and cellars dating back to the Middle Ages, has been recently opened to the public.

[170] While the Brno Jewish community numbered 12,000 in 1938, only 1,000 survived Nazi persecution during Germany's occupation in World War II.

Lužánky is the oldest public park in the Czech Republic, established in the late 18th century by the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

[179] Špilberk Park is classified as a national cultural sight of the Czech Republic, as a unique piece of landscape architecture.