Denisovy Sady, the park under Brno’s St. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral, celebrated the 200th anniversary of its opening on Thursday 4th October. It was the first urban public park in the Czech lands founded by public administration. Photo credit: @BrnoDaily.
Brno, Oct 6 (BD) – Denisovy Sady, the park set on terraces on Petrov Hill in Brno, has been a popular place for Brno citizens to walk since the 19th century. The first attempts to transform the area into a public park were between 1805 and 1813, but the occupation of the town by Napoleon’s army stopped the work.
200 years ago, on October 4th, 1818, when the terraces had finally been transformed into a city park, they were officially opened and named after Emperor Francis I, whose name day falls on the same day. The terraces thus became the first public park in the Czech lands to be founded by public administration. The tall obelisk celebrating the victory over Napoleon was revealed to the public on the same day.
After the Great War in 1919, the popular Brno park was renamed after the French historian and Bohemist Ernest Denis, who gave strong support to the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia.
It is still known to some as “Park Františkov”, “Francisberk”, or simply “Terasy pod Petrovem”. The current park is the result of an extensive renovation that took place from 2000-2005.
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