Why this ride
From Brno it runs 235 km to Brno; allow about 3 h 10 of riding. The stops in between: Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž, Pleasure Garden, Castle Garden and Castle and Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Brno long day · Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 235 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 10
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Brno → Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 76 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 66 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Brno
Brno is the second city of the Czech Republic, but it behaves like the first city of Moravia, with its own dialect, its own pride and its own very good wine. About 370,000 people live here, a lot of them students, and the centre has the mixture of old and new you would expect: a medieval core below a hilltop castle, baroque churches, and a serious collection of twentieth-century modern architecture.
Read the complete Brno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Brno is where the day begins. Next is Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž.
2. Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
Kroměříž is where Czech parliamentary history briefly came to rest. In 1848, when revolution shook the Habsburg lands, the Austrian constituent assembly moved here from Vienna for safety, and the archbishop's castle housed a group of delegates who tried to write a liberal constitution before the emperor dissolved them. That fact tends to surprise people who come for the gardens, but it fits the place: a small town with an unusually grand residence, built for the bishops of Olomouc.
Read the complete Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Pleasure Garden.
3. Pleasure Garden
Kroměříž is a small, handsome town on the Morava in the Haná country, the flat and fertile middle of Moravia, and its Pleasure Garden, the Květná zahrada, is a surprise to anyone who arrives expecting a quiet agricultural place. It was laid out in the seventeenth century for a prince-bishop of Olomouc, Karl Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn, who wanted a formal Baroque garden with clipped hedges, parterres and a long colonnade, and the pattern has been preserved with unusual faithfulness. The garden is on the World Heritage list together with the castle.
Read the complete Pleasure Garden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Pleasure Garden. Next is Castle Garden and Castle.
4. Castle Garden and Castle
The Archbishop's palace at Kromeriz is a place where a bishop's idea of heaven became a garden. The prince-bishops of Olomouc, who ruled much of Moravia, made Kromeriz their summer residence, and in the seventeenth century they rebuilt the castle and laid out two gardens in the Baroque style. UNESCO listed the palace and the gardens in 1998. The Flower Garden is a formal garden with clipped hedges, fountains, and a long colonnade that is one of the finest in central Europe, while the larger Castle Garden beside the palace is a landscape park of lawns, trees and ponds.
Read the complete Castle Garden and Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Castle Garden and Castle, about halfway. Next is Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc.
5. Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc
Olomouc is the city Prague forgot to overshadow. For centuries before the Habsburgs shifted their attention elsewhere it was the capital of Moravia, and the proof is on the Upper Square, where the Holy Trinity Column rises out of the cobbles like a stone wedding cake. It was built in the first half of the eighteenth century, roughly between 1716 and 1754, and it is among the largest Baroque sculpture groups in central Europe. The city raised it partly as thanks for surviving a plague, and UNESCO listed it in 2000. Walk round it and the saints keep appearing, each one a little more theatrical than the last.
Read the complete Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc sits at 125 km, about halfway. Next is back through Castle Garden and Castle.
6. back through Castle Garden and Castle
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castle Garden and Castle write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Castle Garden and Castle comes up about 167 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Pleasure Garden.
7. back through Pleasure Garden
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pleasure Garden write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 168 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Pleasure Garden. Next is back through Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž.
8. back through Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž, late in the day. Next is Brno.
9. Brno
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brno write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 235 km.
Leg by leg
Brno to Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž
Brno → Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Castle Garden and Castle to Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc
Castle Garden and Castle → Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc to back through Castle Garden and Castle
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc → back through Castle Garden and Castle is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž to Brno
back through Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž → Brno is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.