TIC BRNO ↓ BRNO CENTRAL CEMETERY Guide 2 A BRIEF GUIDE 3 TO BRNO CENTRAL CEMETERY The guide highlights historic personalities groves, scattering meadows and ash burial buried in Central Cemetery of Brno and meadows, columbaria. belongs to a project that can be found online on hrbitovy.brno.cz. Some groups of graves have a special position. Among them mainly are the so Brno Central Cemetery was built at the called honorary burial grounds, where Vídeňská Street according to a project significant personalities are laid to rest. by architect Alois Prastorfer, who also is It is for example the group 25e (also author of administrative buildings near the referred to as the “Circle of Honour”), main entrance and near the side entrance groups H5 and H5e (so-called Alley of from the Jihlavská Street. The opening Honour), and in the cemetery area we ceremony took place on November 3, 1883. also find individual graves of honour. Also Now the cemetery counts among the distinguished is the position of military largest in the Czech Republic. It served burial grounds (groups 47, 49, 56, 66, 79), from the beginning as a burial place for where the remains of military personnel all, regardless of religion, social status, are buried. These graves are maintained nationality or race. according to requirements of Geneva Conventions for military graves. The present-day mourning hall near the main gate was built according to a project The cemetery is not only the last resting by architects Bohuslav Fuchs and Josef place of buried persons, but also a gallery Polášek and it was opened on April 3, 1927. of artistically valuable gravestones from The elegant building in early constructi- famous sculptors or well-known stone- vist style is now a protected monument. mason’s workshops. Such gravestones The crematorium in the upper part of are entered in the State Register of Im- the cemetery at the Jihlavská Street, movable Cultural Monuments. which was built according to a project by architect Ernst Wiesner in functionalist An integral part of the cemetery is greene- style, was declared a National Cultural ry, which has been intentionally cultivated Monument. The first funeral ceremony since the founding of the cemetery with took place here on April 8, 1930. The the aim to change the place of grief into crematorium is supplemented with urn a place of serenity and hope. 4 5 Karel Absolon Josef (Joža) Barvič Ivan Blatný Lev Blatný 01 02 03 + 04 * 16. 6. 1877 Boskovice * 13. 8. 1853 Velké Karlovice * 21. 12. 1919 Brno * 11. 4. 1894 Brno † 6. 10. 1960 Brno † 3. 1. 1924 Brno † 5. 8. 1990 Ipswich (UK) † 21. 6. 1930 Kvetnica (SK) Geologist, speleologist, archaeologist. Bookseller, publisher. In 1883 he opened Poet. He sought inspiration in nature Prose writer, theatre critic, editor. He Famous explorer of karst areas, disco- the first Czech publishing house and and philosophy, lived the most part of acted as a lecturer and playwright in the verer of Punkva Caves in the Moravian bookshop in Brno, where he assembled his life in exile, but his greatest desire Brno National Theatre, and became the Karst and of a mammoth hunters’ camp a stable group of cultural workers. We can was to come back to his beloved native first chairman of the Brno Literary Group. site at Dolní Věstonice. find the name Barvič in all Czech literary, town of Brno. This dream of him came music and sport societies of that time, true in 1991, after his death. After their death, son and father were The gravesite with a model of a limes- he took part in all events which helped reunited after years apart in trachyte tone cave was designed by Ferdinand to strengthen the Czech national aware- composition of the gravestone with urns Dobrovolný, the gravestone is protected ness in the town. by Milivoj Husák. as a monument. The unauthorized gravestone is protected as a monument. Group 25e, grave No. 57 Group 70, grave No. 126–127 Group 25e, grave No. 2 6 7 Thomas Bracegirdle Gustav Brom Vlastimil Bubník Josef Dobrovský 05 06 07 08 * 21. 11. 1795 Leeds (UK) * 22. 5. 1921 Veľké Leváre (SK) * 18. 3. 1931 Kelč * 17. 8. 1753 Balassagyarmat (HU) † 27. 11. 1873 Brno † 25. 9. 1995 Brno † 6. 1. 2015 Brno † 6. 1. 1829 Brno Technical designer and engineering in- Conductor, clarinettist, saxophonist. Ice-hockey and football player. Philologist, historian, founder of Czech dustrialist of British descent. After his In 1948 he came to an orchestra, in Legendary ice-hockey forward who Slavic studies. He was the first to write arrival in Brno in the 1840s he founded in the which he worked as a conductor for won three bronze medals in three world down the history of Czech language and town a factory which produced machines unbelievable fifty three years and which championships and entered the hall of literature and set up a German-Czech for wool textile industry. His factory, which counted among the top ten big bands fame of the International Ice-Hockey dictionary. His interest in archaeology besides textile machines also produced worldwide. Federation (IIHF) in 1997. He counted resulted in archaeological relics being re- cranes, boilers, fire engines or weaponry among the last sportsmen, who played garded as a fully-fledged historical source. components, was one of the predecessors The black granite gravestone was both ice-hockey and football on the of the First Brno Engineering and Manu- made by Miroslav Vochta. top level; in the 1960 European Football The National cultural monument – a sto- facturing Company, established in 1872. Championship he won a bronze medal. ne pyramid, designed by Leo von Klee, contains a cavity for the cast-iron sar- The gravestone is protected as The white marble gravestone was made cophagus. Remains of the scholar and a monument. by Dušan Váňa. the gravestone were moved here from Old Brno Cemetery in 1909. Group 14, grave No. 38–40 Group 25e, grave No. 36 Group H5e, grave No. 7 Group 70, grave No. 126–127 8 9 Vlasta Fialová Rudolf Firkušný Bohuslav Fuchs Johann Paulus Herring 09 10 11 12 * 20. 1. 1928 Brno * 11. 2. 1912 Napajedla * 24. 3. 1895 Všechovice * 14. 2. 1758 Tennenlohe bei Erlangen (DE) † 11. 1. 1998 Brno † 19. 7. 1994 Staatsburg (USA) † 18. 9. 1972 Brno † 15. 1. 1836 Brno Theatre and movie actress, pedagogue Pianist. He gave his first public concert Architect, town planner, professor in Industrialist, entrepreneur in wool texti- in the Janáček Academy of Music and as an eight-year-old boy. Before Nazi Brno University of Technology. He coun- le production, mining and banking. One Performing Arts (JAMU). Her artistic ca- occupation he went to USA, and then ted among the most distinctive perso- of the founders of Moravian textile indu- reer was mainly associated with State emigrated again after February 1948. nalities of the interwar Czechoslovak stry, who came from Nuremberg and lived Theatre Brno, she also cooperated with He categorically refused to give con- architecture and created projects for and worked in Brno since 1780. Brno Radio. An unforgettable movie role certs for the then political regime in many outstanding buildings in Brno. of her became Divá Bára (Wild Barbara) Czechoslovakia and returned to his He is buried in a family tomb from 1851 from the eponymous movie. country as late as after 1990. For his bra- The gravestone with post-mortem cast designed by the Viennese architect Josef ve civil attitude, musical mastery and of a hand of the deceased (made by Jiří Fuss. The tomb – a national cultural monu- The bronze grave sculpture was made promotion of Czech music abroad he Marek) was designed by his son Kamil ment – was moved from the old cemetery by sculptor Nikos Armutidis. was awarded many honours and prizes. Fuchs. The gravestone is protected at what is now the Kounicova Street. as a monument. The gravestone was made by Václav Fiala. Group 25e, No. 37 Group 25e, grave No. 43 Group 25e, grave No. 53 Group 22a, grave No. 1–10 10 11 Josef Hybeš Josef Chytil Leoš Janáček Vítězslava Kaprálová 13 14 15 16 * 29. 1. 1850 Dašice * 9. 3. 1812 Kojetín * 3. 7. 1854 Hukvaldy * 24. 1. 1915 Brno † 19. 7. 1921 Brno † 10. 2. 1861 Brno † 12. 8. 1928 Ostrava † 16. 6. 1940 Montpellier (FR) Politician, journalist. Distinctive figure Archivist, historian, writer. He pub- Composer, pedagogue, initially a condu- Composer and conductor. She be- of social-democratic labour movement lished important sources on the history ctor of Beseda brněnská (cultural society came the first Czech female conductor in Austria-Hungary, Czech deputy in of Moravia, and counted among signi- and artistic ensemble), director of or- who gave a concert with the Czech the Imperial Council, a man who was lo- ficant Czech national workers in Brno. gan school and later a composition pro- Philharmonic, and as a guest conducted ved by workpeople but at the same time fessor in the State Conservatory of Music. in 1938 the BBC Symphony Orchestra respected by his politic opponents. After The sandstone gravestone with an He applied his original musical expression in her own composition “Military emergence of the Czechoslovak Republic angel sculpture and a marble portrait in orchestral works, song cycles and mainly Sinfonietta”. The promising life path he became member of the Revolution medallion was restored after transfer in operas. After years of incomprehension, and career of the author of orchestral National Assembly and senator. of the grave from the Old Brno Cemetery still during his life, he gained recognition works, songs and vocal compositions in 1909. The gravestone was made and today he is considered a world-famous was terminated by untimely death.