PRERAU (Czech, Přerov), a town of Austria, in Moravia, 56 m. E.N.E. of Brünn by rail. Pop. (1900), 16,738, chiefly Czech. It is one of the oldest towns in Moravia, and possesses a Gothic town-hall and an old castle, once occupied by Matthias Corvinus. It has an important cloth industry, and manufactures of sugar, ropes, machinery and agricultural implements. Prerau was at one time the chief seat of the Moravian Brethren.