Grand Prix Kohoutovice - Café with a view

One of the best viewpoints in Brno is the former Grand Prix Café, located on top of a thirteen-storey residential building at Voříškova 2 in the Brno-Kohoutovice district.

The former café, offering a panoramic view of Brno and the surrounding area, is the main landmark of the Kohoutovice housing estate. The glass-roofed restaurant with an open balcony one floor below was built between 1975 and 1978 according to a design by the architect Jaroslav Černý, who, along with František Kočí, was the architect behind the Kohoutovice housing estate. 

During international Grand Prix of motorcycles and road cars races, prominent figures linked to the Communist regime enjoyed viewing the events on the Grand Prix track, which ran directly below the building. Nearby is the Farina Corner, where Giuseppe Farina crashed in September 1949, killing two spectators. The most famous star of the circuit in the past was the Monégasque racing driver Louis Chiron, whose name still lives on in the saying "He drives like Chiron." The World Grand Prix was held on the original circuit through Kohoutovice and Nový Lískovec until 1982, and motorcyclists continued to compete for the European Cup there until 1986. In the 1990s, the restaurant faced complaints from local residents about noise disturbances and eventually closed.

The two-storey steel, fully glazed structure was lifted to the top of the thirteen-storey prefabricated panel building. The base of the 50- metre-tall building is at an elevation of 382 metres, l, with the viewing platform at a height of 44 metres. A mezzanine floor with a terrace that housed technical and sanitary facilities created a setback from the residential parts of the building and served primarily as sound insulation. The rectangular prefabricated panel tower with its glowing glass crown at night formed a prominent visual feature in the silhouette of the housing estate, but it was also known for its vibrant social life with its night-time activities, including music and disco events and a video café. In the 1990s it hosted country nights where country singer Michal Tučný and the popular band Sirius performed. Visitors were offered a range of coffee specialties, ice cream and fruit sundaes, and deliveries of wine direct from the chateau cellars in Valtice.

To ensure that guests did not mingle with the residents of the building beneath, there was a separate staircase with 234 steps, and a lift housed in the building's concrete core, from which the café structure was suspended.

After the closure of the café, the Brno-Kohoutovice district rented the vacant space to a private company for office use. After the company moved out in 2019 and the space was renovated, the current district council is looking for a new way to utilize the space and allow public access to the viewing platform. Recently, for example, wedding ceremonies have been held at the top.