Brněnský Cejl. Historie pozapomenuté věznice, kde své odpůrce věznili Habsburkové, nacisté i komunisté
Brno’s Cejl: The history of a forgotten jail where the Habsburgs, Nazis and Communists imprisoned their opponents

Summary/Abstract: Under arrest at Cejl, here is bliss, there lie fleas, lice on the floor, I caught them, one, two, three and flung them in the air. That is how one criminal recorded his experiences at the prison at 71 Cejl St. in Brno back in 1909. However, its history stretches back to 1770, when a penitentiary for the whole of Moravia was decided on by court decree. The cornerstone was laid on 20 July 1772 by the regional governor, Ernst Christoph Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg. The oldest part of the jail dates from 1772–1776. In 1779 the prison chapel was blessed by the first bishop of Brno, Mathias Franz Graf Chorinsky Freiherr von Ledske, who consecrated it to the Ascension. Initially it did not serve its purpose, functioning as an orphanage under a decision from Marie Theresa. From 1786, however, it was used as a prison. It quickly filled up with inmates, who mainly came from Špilberk. In 1797 it housed 355 prisoners.

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