Chapel of Saints Cyril and Methodius

The Chapel of Saints Cyril and Methodius stands on Morávkovo náměstí in the Bohunice district of Brno — a small, unassuming sacred building squeezed between twelve-storey residential blocks. It's one of those spots on the city map that quietly tells the story of an old village colliding with postwar urban planning, and surviving it.

Where exactly is the chapel located?

The chapel sits on a small green square in the middle of the Bohunice housing estate, right on Morávkovo náměstí, at coordinates 49.167214, 16.577569. It's surrounded by tall, typical socialist-era panel apartment blocks, which makes the low, modest chapel stand out sharply from everything around it — almost like a surviving island of old, rural Bohunice inside a modern city district.

When was the chapel built, and why?

The chapel was built in 1871 in the village of Bohunice, which at the time was an independent farming settlement outside Brno, administratively separate from the city. It was raised on the old village green (náves), the traditional central square of a Czech village, and from the start served for occasional religious services. Residents of Bohunice belonged to the parish of Staré Brno (Old Brno) and had no parish church of their own on site, so the chapel filled that gap. It was built as a village structure, and ownership has stayed remarkably consistent: it belonged to the village of Bohunice then, and belongs to the municipal part that grew out of that village now.

How did the chapel survive the construction of the housing estate?

The chapel's biggest threat came in the 1970s, when the former village of Bohunice was redeveloped into a large prefabricated housing estate. Development plans listed the chapel as unnecessary and slated for demolition — it didn't fit the new urban layout going up around it. In the end, historians and heritage conservationists pushed back, arguing the chapel was a valuable trace of the vanished village worth preserving, and their view prevailed. The chapel remained standing even as twelve-storey towers rose on every side of it.

Does the chapel still serve a religious function today?

Yes. Despite its small size and its slightly incongruous setting in the middle of a housing estate, the Chapel of Saints Cyril and Methodius is still an active place of worship. Every year on July 5th — the feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, which is also a public holiday in the Czech Republic — a formal religious service is held here. It's the one moment each year when the chapel returns to something close to its original role on a larger scale; the rest of the time it functions more as a quiet, contemplative spot within the estate.

What is there to see when visiting?

The chapel itself is a modest, small-scale building, so the appeal here isn't architectural grandeur but contrast — a calm, more than 150-year-old sacred building set against a completely different scale of postwar construction all around it. It makes a worthwhile short stop on a walk through Bohunice, especially for visitors interested in the history of Brno's outlying districts and in how old villages absorbed by an expanding city managed to hold on to fragments of their own identity.

Frequently asked questions

When was the Chapel of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Bohunice built? In 1871, before Bohunice became part of Brno.

Why wasn't the chapel demolished when the housing estate was built? Because historians and heritage conservationists objected to the demolition plans in the 1970s and argued it was worth preserving as a remnant of the former village.

Who owns the chapel? It has belonged to the village of Bohunice since it was built, and today belongs to the city district that grew out of that village.

Are religious services still held at the chapel? Yes, once a year, on July 5th, the feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

How do you get to the chapel? It stands on Morávkovo náměstí in Brno-Bohunice, right at the heart of the housing estate, and is easily reachable on foot from the nearby public transport stops.