www.ceepackaging.com http www.youtube.com www.spilberk.cz From a major royal castle - established around the mid-13th century - and the home of the Moravian margraves in the mid-14th century, it gradually turned into a huge baroque fortress, the toughest prison in the Austro-Hungarian empire and then barracks. A prison had always constituted part of the Špilberk fortress. After the Battle of White Mountain on 8 November 1620, the leading Moravian members of the anti-Habsburg "insurrection" were imprisoned in Špilberk for several years. Franz Freiherr von der Trenck, (born 1711),died here on 4 October 1749. Prisoners came from throughout the Austro Hungarian empire, most notably Italy and Poland. The Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph dissolved the Špilberk prison in 1855, and after departure of the last prisoners three years later, its premises were converted into barracks and they remained such for the next hundred years. In 1939-41, the German army and Gestapo carried out extensive reconstruction at Špilberk in order to turn it into a model barracks. The Czechoslovak army left Špilberk in 1959, which marked a definite end to its military era. The following year, Špilberk became the HQ of the Brno City Museum. Brno was acknowledged to be a town in 1243 by Václav I, King of Bohemia, although it was settled at least 700 years before that. From the 11th century, a castle of the governing Přemyslid dynasty stood here. During the mid-14th century Brno became one of the centres for <b>...</b>