Vila Tugendhat is a remarkable building in a wonderful city. The Villa is one of Mies van der Rohe's earliest works, and is typically functional. The house has been used and abused during the second world war, and then during communism (having been used for a while as a children's hospital), and so it is not quite as original as it will be in the future, which brings me on to a word of caution - sometime in the next twelve months or so it is due to close for major work to restore it to as original a condition as possible, which means it may be closed to visitors for a long time, so if you want to see it, go this year (2004), or you may have to wait a long time.

The house is archtecturally wonderful, but I did feel a bit sick about the fact that when it was built, it cost the equivalent of 30 large houses in the same area. Given that it was built in the late 1920s, a time of depression, one cannot help wondering if the money couldn't have been spent better. However, the place rally has to be seen if you are in Brno - it really is wonderful.