Dark Side of Brno Tour

Yesterday we went on The Dark Side of Brno tour.  It's a free walking tour offered by My Tour Brno. It's marketed as an alternative tour for the less known and non-touristic part of Brno near the city centre.  The tour was quite interesting.

The Agudas Achim synagogue is on Skořepka street and was recently renovated.  The functionalist temple was originally built from 1934 to 1936 by Galician Jews who found refuge here following WWI.  During WWII it was used as a warehouse.  Today it is the only synagogue with regular services in Moravia.

Brno used to be a big deal in the textile industry.  Vlněna was one of the oldest and biggest wool factories.  The old factory dates back to the 18th century.




I believe the company went under around 1997.  The main building is condemned but there is currently a lot of commercial development going on to turn the whole area around.

Brno has a puppet museum.  Muzeum Loutek has over 100 puppets.  The museum was closed but it was a good place for a group photo.  Guess I'll have to check it out another time.



The tour finished at the Museum of Romani Culture which I had finally visited a few months ago.

Along the tour we saw several stolpersteine which is German for "stumbling stones".  There are engraved brass cobblestone-sized squares that you will see across Europe.

The stones have the name, date of birth, and date of persecution for victims of the Nazis.  The goal was to commemorate individuals at their last place of residency.  Most stones show that a person was deported to a concentration camp.

It started as an art project in 1992 in Köln, Germany, and has spread to 22 countries in Europe.  The first stones were placed in Czech Republic in 2008.