Bombed grand cafe by Ernst Wiener, one and only modern synagogue in Moravia, a tram stop with underground public toilets, or former Gestapo’s headquarters – all of them at your fingertips with audio stories and maps to guide you – this is BAM Brno, Brno Architecture Manual [Brněnský architektonický manuál].
BAM is available in English and German as a freely accessible on-line database providing complex information about Brno urban development in 1918-1945.
The City of Brno, the House of Arts of Brno and European Regional Development Funds launched the project in 2011 to provide professionals and foreign audience interactive and very lively way of exploring Brno’s architecture.
The web BAM.BRNO.CZ accompanies you on your wanderings with pleasant audio recordings, pictures, maps, trail markings, and printed guides. The project tracks city’s development and helps to re-discover disappeared architectural gems such as Esplanade cafe that turned into Janáček Theater.
Exploring Brno’ Architecture – BAM Guides You!
The project features over 400 interesting sights and proposes 9 tours: Masaryk Quarter, Centre, Below Špilberk, Exhibition Centre, Žabovřesky, Veveří, Černé Pole, East, and South. Each tour marks tens of buildings so eventually, you internalize a feeling that there is a significant worth-of-attention house on every corner, maybe even the building next to your home.
To give you a hint, the tour Center sightseeing features 58 objects on a 4 km walk. There are also marks on the pavement outside the buildings which enable you to get information at a particular web page right on the spot.
You can listen to the recorded account of events connected to a building right in the street and get to know the secrets of Brno. “The walks can be really long, so take a little snack and comfortable shoes. Apart from that, the tracks about separate houses can be downloaded in mp3 and there are also GPS coordinates,” reads one of the reviews on Trip Advisor.
If you are looking for a specific place, BAM provides advanced search of particular buildings based on its architect, street, year etc. Hence, you can set up and personalize your own Brno guided tour.
The best is, everything is available in English, even audio recordings, and it’s totally for free.
By Karelj (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
