Noon at eleven: the legend Brno kept

Start with a story Brno loves enough to preserve—and documents carefully enough to correct. In 1645 Swedish forces besieged the city, and Brno resisted successfully. The familiar version says commander Lennart Torstenson promised to abandon the attack if the city had not fallen by noon, so Brno rang noon an hour early and tricked him into leaving. The City of Brno's own historical account is much more interesting: it explicitly calls that causal story a legend. The siege ended after a hard day of fighting, while the legend created the tradition of 'Petrov noon' at eleven. Look up at the cathedral and keep both versions in view: documented defence below, civic myth above.