The foundation stone for the peace monument at Franzensberg (at present Denisovy sady) was laid in October 1818 along with the establishment of an English park with a view. The monument in the form of an obelisk by the Viennese architect Alois Pichl was, along with various layers of symbolism, to serve as a culminating point for part of the future Ringstrasse, the contours of which began to be formulated in the 1830s. The expansion of the city and the consequent construction boom at the beginning of the 1860s was to have created a specific face, with distinct similarities to nearby Vienna. The period Historicism, the typical “seeking out of a style” consequently served to formulate the distinct architectural look of Brno over the course of “the long century” influenced, first and foremost, by the economic development as well as social and national aspects.
