Šantovo Square, named after Antonín Šanta, deacon of the Church of the Raising of the Holy Cross which dominates the area at its eastern edge, acquired its present-day appearance in the first third of the 19th century. The impulse for vast construction changes was a fire in 1814 which had a significant impact on this space, known at that time as Kozí rynek. The surrounding haphazard buildings, including those before the church facade, were demolished. The place was bisected by the so-called Nová Street (today's Rektora Stříteského Street) which broke up the line of the town ramparts and connected the town with the Záhradí quarter. It featured new paving and a fountain. Although the “exquisite” atmosphere of the small square was later disrupted by Gothic-style modifications to the church, carried out between 1898 and 1899, the square's layout remains unchanged to the present day.
After the 1989 “Velvet Revolution”, the town council proceeded with a demanding, complex renovation of the national heritage reservation, including the area below the chateau with Šantovo and Smetanovo squares (01-VP5) and adjoining streets. The renovation also concerned the reconstruction of the infrastructure, but most of all it concerned modifications to the public spaces which were designed by Brno architects Aleš Burian and Gustav Křivinka. As the designers themselves remarked, “From the very beginning, the work was accompanied by considerations concerning its scale, the amount and legitimacy of the interventions into a familiar view of the respective places and the dangers of changing their character”. In spite of initially considering much more dramatic changes to the organization of the public spaces, they eventually chose a less conspicuous, more modest approach which does not put the historical and the contemporary in opposition to each other. They decided to respect all traces of history and apply traditional materials and techniques so that a passing layperson would not be aware of any new interventions.
Above all, the new changes were more evident in the new interpretation of the layout of the paving stones. Unappealing tarmac surfaces were replaced with new pink stone sets laid out in lines or by granite sets laid out in circles. Furthermore, the slope leading to the provost was enhanced with “horse-rider” steps, which replaced the steep tarmac path. The designers established a new centre for the space where Umrlčí Street and Šmilovského Street meet, marking it out with a triangular, partially grassed surface and, at the tip of the triangle, installed a cast-iron spring with three atypical benches.
