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Brno dragon and wheel, Old Town Hall.
Lukáš Malý; crop by Millenium187 / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Point 2 of 70 of 7 completed
A crocodile, a wheel and one deliberately crooked story
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49.1931, 16.6087
On arrival
Enter or stand at the Radnická passage of the Old Town Hall and look first at the portal, then into the passage.
Look closer
Find the bent central pinnacle on the portal and, when the passage is accessible, the hanging crocodile and wheel inside.
The building is factual; the meanings layered onto its details belong to different evidentiary categories.
The Old Town Hall is where Brno stores several versions of itself under one roof. First, the stone: the protected late-Gothic portal is tied to Anton Pilgram and the early sixteenth century. Then the animal: the famous 'dragon' hanging in the passage is actually a Nile crocodile. Brno has a documentary explanation for the specimen and also a much better monster story involving bait and quicklime. Above you, a bent pinnacle gets another revenge legend: Pilgram supposedly twisted it to mirror the councillors' crooked behaviour after a dispute over payment. Do not choose one story and throw away the rest. Instead, separate the objects you can see from the explanations Brno has attached to them.
Accessibility at this stop
The exterior portal can be viewed from street level. Interior passage access may vary with opening conditions; the route does not require climbing the tower.
These notes describe known conditions at this stop. Urban conditions can change, so assess the situation on site.
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2. A crocodile, a wheel and one deliberately crooked story
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