The National Museum
National Museum
main building- Praha 1, Václavské námìstí 68 map
check for exhibitions
Opening hours:
(V. - IX.)
MON- SUN: 10 AM - 6 PM
(X. - IV.)
MON- SUN: 9 AM - 5 PM
CLOSED: every first Tuesday of the month.
ATTENTION:
Short-term changes of opening hours in June:
On saturday 9th June is museum open 10 AM-3 PM.
On saturday 16th June is museum open 10 AM-4 PM. Than again from 7 PM, on the occasion of Prague Museum Night.
On thursday 28th June is museum open 10 AM-4 PM
The National Museum, the oldest museum institute in the Czech Lands, was founded as the “Patriotic Museum” in 1818 by a ceremonial proclamation of the provincial nobility of 15th April. To begin with, the collections were kept in the Minorite Monastery of St. James in the Old Town and in private dwellings. The first permanent seat of the Museum became, in 1819, the Sternberg Palace at Hradeany, partly lent for this purpose by the Association of Patriotic Friends of Art. Today there is one of the centres of the National Gallery here.
Collections of the National museum
The collection funds of the National museum represent several million items of material evidence about the inanimate and living nature and about the man and his activities in worldwide scale. These are collections of mineralogy (which belong to the most beautiful and most 
extensive collections in the whole world), paleontology, mycology (the mycological herbarium is one of the most extensive worldwide), botany, entomology (which represent more than 5 million preserved specimens of insects), zoology, anthropology, archaeology, (the most extensive and best collections are those of the Neolithic and Eneolithic, the beginnings of the Bronze Age Ð ònžtice culture, the Later and Late bronze Age Ð Knov’z culture, the Old La Tene style of the end of the Early Iron Age Ð especially the extensive collection of Roman imports from the 1st and 2nd centuries. As regards the later periods, it is particularly the material from Bohemia dating from the 9th and 10th centuries, objects of high historical and art history value (in addition to objects of high art value also simple objects connected with the everyday life of the poople). From the very beginning the collections have been regarded also as a treasury of the most important monuments of the Czech national history. Remarkable parts of the collections are the lapidarium and the collections of ethnography (most numerous items in the collection are folk costumes, embroideries and folk textiles). 
Very precious objects are kept also in the collections of pottery, folk paintings, folk furniture, folk tools and customs. Of exceptional importance is the numismatic collection (fundamental collection documenting the development of coin minting in Bohemia and Moravia, the most extensive collection of historical medals in Bohemia and Moravia ), collections of documents related to the history of Czech theatre and music (among the most important is the archive of sheet-music and the collection of musical instruments containing also precious specimens that have belonged to famous world masters), collections related to physical education and sports, and collections of items of material and spiritual culture of Africa, America, Asia, Arctic regions and Oceania. The library of the National museum keeps and administers, in addition to books of scientific literature and fiction, also a collection of manuscripts, incunabula, and old prints and documents from Bohemia documenting the development of book culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. An important part of the funds of the Archive of the National museum are documents from the estates of leading personalities of political, scientific and cultural life of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Function and History of the National Museum
The National Museum, a scientific institution intended to systematically establish, prepare and publicly exhibit natural scientific and historical collections, was founded through the efforts of many distinguished figures in Bohemia beginning as early as the end of the 18th century. Particular recognition in these endeavors is due to Kašpar Maria, Count Sternberg, who we can consider to be the main founder of the National Museum. Among the enlightened aristocracy of the land and the Czech patriotic political leaders, the specific proposals expressing Kašpar Sternberg conception found their champion in the person of the highest burgrave, Count František Libštejnský from Kolovrat. Their public declaration from the celebratory founder's meeting on April 15th, 1818 can be understood as the founding charter of the National Museum.
Kašpar Maria, Count Sternberg, founder of the museum
Thus arose the institution, which is the oldest museum in Bohemia and today the most distinguished and largest museum in the Czech Republic. The cornerstone of the first museum funds was formed from the private collection of Kašpar Sternberg and other noble patrons, who even with their financial support enabled the activities of the institute. Soon after the founding of the museum, there were alreadz significant collections covering mineralogy, palaeontology, numismatics, as well as a library and archives. Many distinguished figures from the cultural and scientific life of the day took part in the founding of the museum, one of the most important of which was cartainly historian and Czech political leader František Palacký. Among other activities, in 1827 he became the first editor of the National Museum Magazine, which is published to this day and is the oldest professional magazine in the Czech lands. Other outstanding figures contributed their work to the founding of the museum such as Josef Dobrovský, Josef Jungmann, Václav Hanka, Jan Svatopluk Presl, František Josef Gerstner and others.
Josef Schulz, architect of the museum building
In the beginning, the collections were teporarily concentrated in several locations throughout Prague. In 1819, the museum acquired its first permanent quarters in Sternberg Palace in Hradèany. After a quarter of a century in 1846, the museum moved to the relatively small Nostic Palace in Na Pøíkopì street.
It was not until the end of the century that a truly distinguished and appropriate home for the museum collections was constructed at the upper end of Wenceslas Square. Following the design of prominent Czech neo-rennaisance architect Josef Schulz, the new museum was built on the foundation of the Czech parliament from 1885 - 1891 at a cost of approximately two million gold crowns. The beautiful palace became the dominant structure on Wenceslas Square and one of the largest and prominent buildings in Prague. The idea of the building exceeded the mere purposes of the museum: the palace became a representational symbol of the climax of the Czech national revival, a celebrated monument to Czech science and culture. That is why the Pantheon was designed as the focal point of the building, a secular cathedral glorifying the celebrated epochs and figures from Czech history, crowned and accented by the massive central cupola reaching a height of nearly 70 meters. The Pantheon is the site of ceremonial and festive gatherings, it is from this place that the burial processions of the most distinguished Cyech scientists, artists and politicians have led. Here was also the ceremonial meeting of the newly established Czech Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, which made its temporary home here in the new building which was opened amid much fanfare on May 18th, 1891.
František Palacký, historian
At present the National Museum shelters almost 14 million of items from the area of natural history, history, arts, music and librarianship, located in tens of buildings. Throughout the entire year, visitors may view the permanent exhibits of the National Museum as well as a number of temporary exhibits. These are generally housed in the Hollareum exhibit hall on the ground floor of the main building as well as the two corridors leading to this space from the entrance vestibule. There are often other small exhibits in the Museum of book culture also on the ground floor before the entrance into the study room of the national Museum Library. On the first floor, three rooms across from the Pantheon are occassionally reserved for exhibits. Spacoius less extensive exhibits are presented on the second floor gallery, while in the Pantheon itself there are periodic exhibits of exceptional significance. The Pantheon is also often used for exceptional evening social events. The interior staircase of the National Museum building is a space having remarkably fine acoustics, and thus is the place of favorite traditional chamber and choral concerts.
