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National Museum in Prague. Photo by Suicasmo.

Top 10 interesting facts about National Museum, Prague

The National Museum was established on the 15th of April 1818 and is located in Prague, Czech Republic.

The museum was created to prepare, establish and showcase natural, scientific, and historical collections. 

The institution houses nearly 14 million items with a vast collection of natural history, librarianship, music, and arts. 

It holds the record as the largest museum in the Czech Republic with more than three buildings. A cultural monument was declared in the museum and has attracted numerous visitors worldwide.

Its main building has undergone multiple renovations and now holds permanent exhibitions. Here are 10 Interesting facts about the National Museum, Prague:

1. It is the largest museum in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe that is historically known as Bohemia.

The Republic is bordered by Austria to the south, Slovakia to the southeast, Germany to the west, and Poland to the northeast.

The are 480 museums, memorials, and galleries in the Republic. Prague the capital city of the Czech Republic has an estimated more than 100 museums and exhibition halls.

The city’s art and culture touches on every genre and period of Czech history. The National Museum in Prague is one of the oldest, largest, and most respected museums in Central Europe.

2. It was founded in 1818 by Ka拧par Maria 艩ternberg

The National Museum in Prague. Photo by Mal媒, V谩clav (1874 – 1935).

Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg was a Bohemian entomologist, theologian, geognosy, mineralogist, and botanist. He is deemed to be the founder of modern paleobotany.

He established the Bohemian National Museum now known as the National Museum in Prague.

His collection of minerals, fossils, and plant specimens formed the core collection of the museum.

This was after the French Revolution when royal and private collections of culture, science, and art were made available to the public.

Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg was the first president of the Society of the Patriotic Museum and served as the operator and trustee of the museum.

3. The National Museum houses nearly 14 million items

The National Museum contains several million items. They are categorized into three main parts. The natural Museum’s departments and scientific laboratories. 

The Historical Museum’s medieval collection like jewelry and paintings hand in hand with high artistic value precious objects like the silver tiara of a duke from the twelfth century, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque jewelry among many others.

The museum also holds several departments, including the Library and the archives which contain rare charts and manuscripts of Czech history from the 11th to the 20th century.

4. Historian Franti拧ek Palack媒 was strongly involved in the foundation of the museum

Franti拧ek Palack媒 was a Czech historian and politician considered one of the three Fathers of the nation.

He was the most influential person in the Czech National Revival which is characterized by the deepening and professionalization of Museum activities. 

While he was serving as historian and secretary of the National Museum in 1841 he tried to balance natural science and history.

This was because the museum had not acquired historical objects until the 1830s and 1840s when Romanticism arose.

Franti拧ek described in his Treatise of 1841 his plan to change this thus the institution began to be viewed as a center for Czech nationalism.

He had initially suggested that the museum publish separate journals in German and Czech that were previously written in German that later ceased to Czech.

Although the National Museum’s historical treasures equaled its collection of natural science artifacts nearly a century later.

5. The museum has had limited storage for the collections since its creation

Prague National Museum. Photo by Freakedenough.

When The museum was first created the major shortcoming it faces was the storage of the Museum collections.

The collections were initially stored in the 艩ternberg Palace at Hrad膷any. It was then moved to Nostic Palace in Na P艡铆kop臎 Street in 1846.

The newly built Museum building in Wenceslas Square has harbored the collection since 1891.

Even though it is significantly bigger than the rest the growing Museum’s collection soon became too grand for the building to hold.

A new building of the Natural History Museum was being built in Horn铆 Po膷ernice to fix this problem. It is a large depository area for the collections of the Historical Museum and the Library of the National Museum acquired and reconstructed.

6. The main building of the museum was built by Josef Schulz

Josef Schulz was a Czech architect and designer whose works included decorative elements, as well as furniture, lighting, and other interior equipment.

Josef was also a teacher, restorer, and the sole designer for the National Museum. The prominent Czech neo-renaissance architect built the Main Building of the Museum located on the upper end of Wenceslas Square from 1885 to 1891.

This allowed a great deal of work, which had previously been devoted to preserving the collections was now put toward collecting new materials.

7. The museum has undergone numerous renovations

. National Museum in Prague in 2021.Photo by Martin2035.

The national museum has undergone quite a number of renovations.  The first renovation occurred after the main building was damaged during World War II by a bomb in 1945.

Luckily collections were not damaged due to their removal to secured storage sites and in 1947 after intensive repairs, the museum was reopened.

In 1960. The second renovation took place after the main facade was severely damaged by strong Soviet machine-gun and automatic submachine-gun fire during the 1968 Warsaw Pact intervention. 

Reconstruction of the facade was made between 1970 鈥� 1972. Another reconstruction was after the main building was also damaged during the construction of the Prague Metro in 1972 and 1978.

Another major reconstruction closed the museum between 7 July 2011 and 28 October 2018 leaving seven million items to be relocated to the museum’s depositories dubbing it the biggest moving of museum collections in Czech history.

8. The national museum’s new building was declared a cultural monument

The museum’s new building was built in 1937 and extended from 1968鈥�1973. It is located next to the Main Building of the National Museum and was used for meetings of the Federal Assembly. 

The bridge girder was used there; at that time, it was the largest hung glass wall in Czechoslovakia.

It was used by Radio Free Europe between 1995 and 2009.

In 2000 it was declared to be a cultural monument which is a protected property designated by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and constitutes the most important part of the Czech cultural heritage.

9. The Museum consists of five specialized institutes

The National museum’s collection and gallery focus on five specialized institutes. These are arts, music, natural history, librarianship, and history.

These institutions help to showcase the history and culture of the Czech Republic educating and reminding the people of their past and present.

They help showcase to the visitors the unique artistic benevolence of Prague to the world.

10. The museum has been featured in a film

National Museum, Prague. Photo by Daniel Dimitrov.

The museum has been featured in a film for its grand beauty and unique architecture.

The National Museum was featured as Vatican City the independent city-state and enclave surrounded by Rome, Italy in the film Euro Trip.

The 2004 film is an American sex comedy of an American teenager who travels across Europe in search of his German pen pal his quest takes him to England, France, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Germany, and Italy, and encounters awkward, humorous, and embarrassing situations along the way.