page_title: Brno
section_title: 17th century
hierarchical_section_title: Brno / History / 17th century
caption_attribution_description: English: View of Brno in the year 1700. Čeština: Pohled na Brno od severovýchodu na rytině z roku 1700.
context_page_description: Brno is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic after the main capital, Prague, and one of the 100 largest cities of the EU. The Brno metropolitan area has more than 600,000 inhabitants.
  Brno is the former capital city of Moravia and the political and cultural hub of the South Moravian Region. It is the centre of the Czech judiciary, with the seats of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, and a number of state authorities, including the Ombudsman, and the Office for the Protection of Competition. Brno is also an important centre of higher education, with 33 faculties belonging to 13 institutes of higher education and about 89,000 students.
  Brno Exhibition Centre ranks among the largest exhibition centres in Europe. The complex opened in 1928 and established the tradition of large exhibitions and trade fairs held in Brno.
context_section_description: In 1641, in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, the Holy Roman Emperor and Margrave of Moravia Ferdinand III ordered the permanent relocation of the diet, court, and the land tables from Olomouc to Brno, as Olomouc's Collegium Nordicum made it one of the primary targets of Swedish armies. In 1642 Olomouc surrendered to the Swedish army, which then stayed there for 8 years. Meanwhile, Brno, as the only Moravian city which under the leadership of Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches succeeded in defending itself from the Swedes under General Lennart Torstenson, served as the sole capital of the state (Margraviate of Moravia). After the end of the Thirty Years' War (1648), Brno retained its status as the sole capital. This was later confirmed by the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II in 1782, and again in 1849 by the Moravian constitution. Today, the Moravian Land Tables are stored in the Moravian Regional Archive, and they are included among the national cultural sights of the Czech Republic.
  During the 17th century Špilberk Castle was rebuilt as a huge baroque citadel. Brno was besieged by the Prussians in 1742 under the leadership of Frederick the Great, but the siege was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1777 the bishopric of Brno was established; Mathias Franz Graf von Chorinsky Freiherr von Ledske was the first Bishop.
caption: Brno c. 1700
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