Špilberk Castle (
German:
Spielberg) is a
castle on the hilltop in
Brno, Southern
Moravia. It began to be built as early as the first half of the 13th century by the Premyslid kings and complete by King
Ottokar II of Bohemia. From a major royal castle established around the mid-13th century, and the seat of the Moravian
margraves in the mid-14th century, it was gradually turned into a huge baroque fortress considered the harshest prison in the
Austro-Hungarian empire, and then into
barracks. This prison had always been part of the Špilberk fortress.