Czech Republic's underrated second city — Moravian wine, Mies van der Rohe, and underground catacombs
Brno is the capital of Moravia and the Czech Republic's second-largest city — a university town of 380,000 with a vibrant café scene, one of Europe's finest Functionalist buildings (Villa Tugendhat, by Mies van der Rohe), and a labyrinth of Baroque-era catacombs beneath the old city. The surrounding Moravian wine country produces some of the best Riesling and Pinot Gris in Central Europe.
Brno became the Moravian capital in 1641 and its Špilberk fortress served as one of the Habsburg Empire's most feared prisons, holding Italian carbonari and Napoleon's officers. Gregor Mendel conducted his experiments on pea genetics here in the 1860s, establishing the laws of inheritance that underpin all modern biology.