Brno Observatory and Planetarium

The observatory and planetarium on Kraví hora has undergone continuous architectural and functional transformations since its construction began in the early 1950s. 

The Brno Observatory was inaugurated on 16 October 1954. At that time, it consisted of two seven-metre domes housing telescopes for observing the night sky and the Sun. A building with a lecture hall, an observation deck, and a projection planetarium – creating the illusion of a starry sky on an eight-metre dome – was completed in 1959. The combination of the observatory and the planetarium resulted in a unique facility, as such a merger of specialized astronomical instruments is relatively uncommon elsewhere. 

Interest in astronomical programmes continued to grow, leading to a decision in the early 1980s to expand the building, with the main addition being a large planetarium hall. Although a new projection device was purchased as early as 1978, construction did not begin until 1986, and the large planetarium was officially opened in October 1991. 

From 2005, plans were set in motion to transform the municipal observatory and planetarium into a multi-visual centre. This transformation involved not only the building itself but also its programming focus, staff composition, and overall working style. The foundation stone of this project was laid on 7 October 2009 by no fewer than sixteen astronauts, with Vladimír Remek – the first Czechoslovak astronaut – serving as its personal patron. 

Between 2010 and 2011, the Brno Observatory and Planetarium underwent major reconstruction in the Functionalist style. The building was designed by the architect Martin Rudiš from the Rudiš-Rudiš Architects studio. In 2018, a planetarium with stereoscopic projection capabilities was opened, offering resolutions of up to 25 million pixels on a 17-metre-diameter hemispherical screen. Only a handful of such advanced projection halls are to be found in Europe.