BRNO’S CENTRE GEOTRAIL

The term geodiversity probably makes you think of rocks, soil, and water or maybe attractive rock formations or beautiful caves. It might seem we normally see geodiversity in natural areas most often used for hiking and education. But you can also find geodiversity in cities – wonder where? The answer is pretty easy: everywhere! In cities, geodiversity includes interesting rock formations and also old quarries and sandpits, distinctive landforms that help to shape the city or form an inseparable part of the cityscape, building and decorative stones used for local buildings and statues, and last but not least water features.

Brno sits on the edge of two large, European-scale geologic provinces: the older, Paleozoic Bohemian Massif, consisting of igneous and metamorphic rock, and the younger Cenozoic Western Carpathians, composed mostly of sedimentary rock. The differences in the rock types can be seen in the landforms and landscape. The northern and central part of the city is rugged with hills and deep valleys – these are the rocks of the Bohemian Massif: hardier, rigid, and in places broken by mountain formation. In contrast, the southern part, made mostly of sand and clay, is flat, soft, and featureless. It is therefore possible to find within a relatively small area almost all geologic time spans (from the Precambrian through the Quaternary) and various landforms.

The geotrail leads you through several interesting places in the Brno centre and shows you that geodiversity has its place within the city.