Brno: Vegetable Market

For centuries, the Vegetable Market, nicknamed Zelňák, has been a place where the local citizens buy fruit, vegetables, flowers, etc. In the lower part of the square, you can enter an underground labyrinth, a unique system of underground passages and cellars from the Middle Ages. The square is dominated by a monumental Baroque fountain, called ‘Parnas’, by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach. Another point of interest is Reduta, one of the oldest theatre buildings in central Europe, in front of which you will find a statue of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that serves as a reminder of the concert the child virtuoso gave here in December 1767 when he was only 11. At the upper part of the square lies Dietrichsteinský palác (the Dietrichstein Palace), built between 1614 and 1620 and designed by the Italian architect Tencalla. Today it houses Moravské zemské muzeum (the Moravian Museum). Right next to it are two Baroque palaces – the house of the abbots of the Žďár monastery and Dům pánů z Fanalu (the House of the Lords of Fanal), today the seat of Divadlo Husa na provázku (the Goose on a String Theatre). And make sure not to miss the Baroque sculptural group of the Holy Trinity in front of the palace, created by Antonín Schweigl in 1729. Also in the upper part is a block of four houses of Gothic and Renaissance origins called Malý Špalíček. The latest addition to the square is a roofed marketplace in a renovated building which used to be called Dům potravin (the House of Food).