Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, Brno


The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul is located on the Petrov hill in the centre of the city of Brno in the Czech Republic. It is a national cultural monument and one of the most important pieces of architecture in South Moravia. The interior is mostly Baroque in style, while the impressive 84-metre-high towers were constructed to the Gothic Revival designs of the architect August Kirstein in 1904–5.
In the 14th century, the Cathedral was rebuilt on an earlier construction as a three-nave Gothic basilica.

The "midday" chimes

Traditionally, the bells of the cathedral are rung at 11 o'clock in the morning instead of 12 noon. The reason for this, according to legend, is that during the Thirty Years' War the invading Swedes had promised, when laying siege to Brno, that they would call off their attack if they had not succeeded in taking the city by midday on the 15th of August. The battle underway, some shrewd citizens decided to ring the bells an hour early on this date, fooling the Swedes into breaking off the siege and leaving empty-handed.

Religious services