Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about , inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic after the capital, Prague , and one of the largest cities of the European Union. The Brno metropolitan area has approximately , 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 , [ 6 ] and the Office for the Protection of Competition.
Brno Exhibition Centre is among the largest exhibition centres in Europe. Brno is divided into 29 city districts, further subdivided into 48 cadastral territories.
The etymology of the name Brno is disputed. It might be derived from the Old Czech brnie 'muddy, swampy. The latter theory would make it cognate with other Celtic words for hill, such as the Welsh word bryn. The Brno basin has been inhabited since prehistoric times , [ 24 ] as seen in a discovery of at least 3 three mammoths bones and prehistoric tools dating back 15, years. The seats of these rulers and thus the "capitals" of these territories were the castles and towns of Brno, Olomouc , and Znojmo.
In the late 12th century, Moravia began to reunify, forming the Margraviate of Moravia. From then until the mid of the 17th century, it was not clear which town should be the capital of Moravia. Political power was divided between Brno and Olomouc, but Znojmo also played an important role. Otherwise, until Olomouc had a larger population than Brno, and was the seat of the only Roman Catholic diocese in Moravia.
In the small settlements grouped together to form one fortified settlement, and Brno was granted city royal privileges [ clarification needed ] [ 29 ] by the King, and thus recognized as a royal city. As throughout Eastern Central Europe, the granting of city privileges was connected with immigration from German-speaking lands. Brno and Olomouc were also the seats of the Land Court and the Moravian Land Tables , thus they were the two most important cities in Moravia. Brno was besieged in and again in by the Hussites during the Hussite Wars.
