Brno-sever

Brno-sever
Self-governing District of Brno
Flag Coat of arms
Location of Brno-sever in Brno 49°12′54″N 16°37′35″E
Country	Czech Republic
Region	South Moravian Region
City	Brno
Government
• Mayor	Martin Maleček (SOL)
Area
• Total	12.24 km2 (4.73 sq mi)
Population  (2021)
• Total	48,382
• Density	4,000/km2 (10,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	602 00
Website	https://www.sever.brno.cz/

Brno-sever (lit. 'Brno-North') is one of the 29 self-governing districts of Brno, Czech Republic, located in the north side of the city. It is made up of the districts and cadastral areas of Husovice, Lesná and Soběšice and parts of Černá Pole and Zábrdovice. The total cadastral area amounts to 12.24 km². The self-governing district was established on November 24, 1990, and its office is located in Zábrdovice.

For the purposes of the senate elections, the territory of the Brno-sever district is included in electoral district number 60 of the Brno-City District.

History

Urban development

The oldest parts of Brno-sever are the former villages of Husovice, Soběšice and Zábrdovice, whose development dates back to the Middle Ages. The suburban villa and residential development of Černá Pole was created only during the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the "New Husovice" around the Republic Square. In the interwar period, workers' quarters also grew up here, both planned (e.g. semi-detached houses on Míčková street according to the project of Bohuslav Fuchs) and emergency ones (Divišova čtvrť, Písečník). An important change was the construction of the new "Tišnovka" in the early 1950s and the subsequent cancellation of the original line that separated Husovice from Zábrdovice and Černý Polí.

Overall, the youngest district of Brno-sever is Lesná, whose panel development was created in the 1960s and 1970s. years of the 20th century. Around the same time (1960s-1980s), panel houses also grew up in Černá Pole. Panel housing did not appear in the other districts of the modern city district. In the 1980s, Brno's large urban ring road was cut through the original Husovice semi-detached house (Tomek Square) as a significant urban intervention. In the years 1996–1998, the Husovice tunnel was built as part of the circuit on the territory of the city district, thanks to which the traffic in Černá Pole on Provazníkova and Merhautova streets was relieved. As a follow-up to this tunnel, a major reconstruction of the intersection at Tomek Square into a level crossing is underway from 2021, in connection with which some other remnants of the old development were disposed of.

Administrative development

From a historical point of view, the territory of the modern city district of Brno-sever includes the entire cadastre of the former city of Husovice and the former municipality of Soběšice, parts of the original cadastres of Královo Pole, Zábrdovice, Dolní a Horní Cejl, Obřany and a small part of the original cadastres of Velká Nová Ulice and Červená. The territory of the modern Brno-sever district was divided into these cadastral territories until the second cadastral reform from the second half of the 1960s, while the boundaries of these units were modified several times throughout history.

The territory of the Brno-sever district was gradually annexed to Brno in several stages: on July 6, 1850, Dolní and Horní Cejl, Velká Nová Ulice and Zábrdovice were annexed; On October 23, 1912, some lands originally belonging to Královo Pole; On April 16, 1919, Husovice, Obřany and the rest of the area of Královo Pole were annexed; On November 26, 1971, Soběšice was the last to be annexed to Brno.

The modern district of Brno-sever was established on November 24, 1990, on most of the territory of the former Brno III municipal district, from which several districts were separated when it was abolished, the residents of which expressed dissatisfaction with the existing membership of this district and its functioning after the Velvet Revolution (for example, Maloměřice and Obřany that created their own district). On May 1, 1998, the Brno-sever district was additionally expanded by the addition of part of the Zábrdovice cadastral territory based on an agreement with the neighboring Brno-střed district.

The incoherence and compactness of the city district (extraordinary in the Brno context) sometimes led to tendencies to break away from a district (e.g. in 2014 in Lesná), but these views have never received sufficient support.

Character

The urban part of Brno-sever is located on the edge of the Brno basin, from its lower part of the territory it rises over the Lesná terrace to the forested upland plains in the Soběšice cadastral area. The urban part has a very uneven structure and, as a result of its demarcation, a rather atypical shape resembling an hourglass. With the exception of Soběšice, which has the character of a large village surrounded by a forest, the rest of the township has a distinctly urban character with various types of development (large-city apartment blocks, terraced family houses, villa development, panel housing estates). The district office is located on the very southern edge of the territory, in the cadastral area of Zábrdovice.

On the territory of Brno-sever there are, for example, the buildings of the Mendel University in Brno, the regional Trade Office, the Museum of Romani Culture, a children's hospital, the MIMI FORTUNAE Dance Theater, the Poor Clares Monastery in Šibešice or the Villa Tugendhat, the only UNESCO monument in Brno. There are also several parks, for example Schreber's gardens (former Zábrdovice cemetery) or Marie Restituta park (former Husovice cemetery).

There are three churches in the district, the oldest of which is the Art Nouveau church of the Sacred Heart of the Lord from the beginning of the 20th century in Husovice. Others are the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary near the Poor Clares monastery in Sobešice from the 1990s and the Church of the Blessed Mary Restituta in Lesná, completed in 2020. The only operating cemetery in Brno-sever is the Soběšice forest cemetery.

Demographics

As of the 2021 census, the population is 48,382, up 1.6% from 47,643 in the 2011 census. The population peaked at 64,251 in 1970.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% 1869 2,591 —     1880 4,050 +56.3% 1890 7,568 +86.9% 1900 9,497 +25.5% 1910 12,010 +26.5%	Year Pop. ±% 1921 12,008 −0.0% 1930 15,775 +31.4% 1950 18,590 +17.8% 1961 63,261 +240.3% 1970 64,251 +1.6%	Year Pop. ±% 1980 56,819 −11.6% 1991 46,808 −17.6% 2001 45,908 −1.9% 2011 47,643 +3.8% 2021 48,382 +1.6%
Source: Censuses

Transportation

A number of busy traffic arteries pass through the territory of the city, especially the part of the route of the Road I/42 (VMO), which passes through Provazníková street, Husovice tunnel and Porgesová street. Other busy streets include Cejl, Dukelská třída, Merhautova, Okružní, Seifertova, Generála Píky and Vranovská streets.

Public transport between individual districts of the city district and the rest of Brno is provided by the Public Transport Company of the City of Brno as part of the Integrated Transport System of the South Moravian Region. Important are tram lines 3, 4, 5, 7 and 9 (also 2 on the outskirts), trolleybus lines 25 and 26 and bus lines 43 (to Soběšice), 44, 46 (Černá Pole–Lesná), 57 (Husovice–Lesná– Soběšice) and 84. Night transport is provided by bus lines 92, 93 (Černá Pole, Lesná, Soběšice), 94 (Husovice) and marginally 97 and 99 (Cejl). Husovice is also home to one of Brno's three trolleybus depots.

Brno-sever also has a Brno-Lesná railway stop on the Brno–Tišnov line (train line S3).