Jihomoravský kraj, Czech Republic — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Jihomoravský kraj known for?

South Moravia is known as the administrative region built on the southwestern part of Moravia, with Brno, the nation's second-largest city, as its capital. Its edges are borders. The region runs down to Lower Austria and Austria in the south and reaches Slovakia in the south-east, while inside the Czech Republic it meets the South Bohemian Region, Vysočina, and the Zlín Region.

Wine country defines its lower reaches. This is the meeting place of Bohemia, Moravia, and two neighbouring states.

Where is Jihomoravský kraj?

South Moravia occupies the southwestern part of Moravia, the historical land that gives the region its name, in the south-east of the Czech Republic. Its borders read like a roll call. The region touches Lower Austria and Austria along its southern edge and reaches Slovakia, by way of the Trenčín and Trnava regions, in the south-east, so that two international frontiers help draw its outline.

Inland the neighbours are Czech. To the west lies the South Bohemian Region, to the north-west Vysočina, to the north the Pardubice Region, to the north-east the Olomouc Region, and to the east the Zlín Region, a full ring of administrative units around it. Brno stands near the middle of this frame, the nation's second-largest city and the region's hub.

The land itself softens toward the south. The higher, cooler ground of the interior gives way to the warm lowland basins near the Austrian border, where the vineyards run, and this gradient from upland to sun-warmed plain is the defining fact of the region's geography. Water and farmland fill the low country.

South Moravia is, in effect, the warm southern doorstep of Moravia within the Czech Republic.

What is Jihomoravský kraj like?

South Moravia carries a distinct Moravian identity, set apart from Bohemia to the west and shaped by its long borders with Austria and Slovakia. Brno gives the region its urban heart. As the second-largest city of the Czech Republic, it gathers the universities, theatres, and galleries of Moravia's south into one place, and the Czech language carries the everyday life of the region.

Wine runs through the culture here. The warm southern lowlands toward Lower Austria hold the country's main vineyards, and the rhythm of the grape harvest, the cellars, and the wine villages sets South Moravia apart from the beer-leaning lands to the north and west. Folk tradition stays close to the surface.

The villages near the Slovak border keep costume, song, and festival alive in a way the cities have shed, and the region reads as a threshold between Czech, Austrian, and Slovak worlds rather than a single sealed culture. Its character is that of a meeting ground. South Moravia belongs to Moravia, faces Austria and Slovakia, and answers to Brno.

What is the history of Jihomoravský kraj?

South Moravia took its modern administrative form in 2000, when the Czech Republic drew its present regions, but the land it covers is the old southwestern heart of Moravia. Its history is a border history. Brno grew as the chief city of this part of Moravia, while the country toward Lower Austria and Slovakia passed for centuries through the shifting frontiers of central European empires and kingdoms.

That frontier past still marks the region.

What is the climate of Jihomoravský kraj?

South Moravia has one of the warmest, driest climates in the Czech Republic, thanks to its low southern basins near the Austrian border. Summers run hot and sunny. The lowland toward Lower Austria ripens the vineyards through long warm seasons, while winters stay cold but shorter than in the uplands to the north.

Spring arrives early in the wine country. This southern warmth is what sets the region apart from the rest of Moravia.

How do you get to Jihomoravský kraj?

South Moravia is easy to reach, centred on Brno at the crossroads of the Czech Republic's southern routes. The city has its own airport on its edge. Main rail lines and motorways run through Brno linking it north toward Prague and Olomouc and south across the border to Austria and Slovakia, so the region sits on the through-route between the Czech lands and its southern neighbours.

Buses fill in the rest. From Brno the wine villages and border crossings toward Lower Austria are a short ride out.