Brno's Water Tanks: Unique 'secular cathedrals'

Brno has transformed from a rather workaday industrial place known mainly as a centre for trade fairs to a buzzing and very visitable city-break destination. It's thanks to some well-developed recent attractions such as the Water Tanks (Žlutý kopec). They uplift and celebrate Brno's workaday background, a down-to-earth counterpart to Prague's baroque splendour.

Once these three vast underground chamber stored water for the thirsty people of Brno, until they were superseded by more modern storage options elsewhere. The city has cleverly reimagined them as places to visit, and they're much more thrilling an experience than their functional origins might suggest: secular cathedrals, a sort of earthly equivalent of Córdoba's grand mosque.

Tank 1, from 1874, has curious curved floors, and feels like some sci-fi skateboard park. Tank 2, from 1894, is the most cathedral-like, with endless lines of brick pillars that could be an Escher lithograph.

Tank 3, from 1917, is concrete rather than brick, and the most acoustically intriguing of the three. Sounds echo eerily forever; the ghostly soundscape created by voices and cries is quite extraordinary.

Visitors can enjoy sound and light shows in the Tanks, and at various times they hold corporate and public events. This is a very unusual music venue!