National Museum

The National Museum in Prague, known in Czech as Národní muzeum, is the country's leading museum of culture and natural history, housing numerous important collections in several historic buildings. The imposing main building towers over Wenceslas Square and was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The facade, more than a hundred meters long, is richly decorated with allegorical figures, reliefs depicting Czech historical events, and gilded marble plaques bearing the names of prominent figures. Groups of statues and bronze figures by well-known sculptors adorn the entrance area and the interior rooms, which impress with their monumental furnishings and functional design. Here you can experience the close connection between architecture and Czech identity, and the scars of history are still visible today, such as the light patches in the facade left by tank fire in 1968.

The museum's history goes back to 1818, when patriotic nobles led by Count Kaspar Maria von Sternberg initiated its founding. Originally conceived as the Patriotic Museum in Bohemia, it went by various names over the decades before being nationalized in 1934. The museum had an enormous influence on Czech science and culture in the 19th century, as nearly all the leading scholars of the time were connected with the institution. After a comprehensive seven-year renovation that lasted until 2018 and significantly expanded the exhibition space, the museum reopened in 2018. The renovation made it possible to present the historic collections in a modern context and to create new permanent exhibitions.

Today the exhibition concept is divided into several thematic areas, housed in both the historic main building and the adjoining new building. On the ground floor of the left wing you'll find the Treasure and Coin Cabinet, which displays jewels, gemstones, and a numismatic collection. On the first floor, you can visit the exhibition "People," which traces the development of humankind from our ancestors to the ancient cultures, and on the second floor a paleontological collection that includes a bone from the only dinosaur ever found in the Czech Republic. The right wing of the second floor is devoted to the "Wonders of Evolution," a zoological exhibit illustrating the development of life from sea and land animals to mammals.

The museum's new building contains further important exhibitions, including a history of the 20th century that uses multimedia to show how politics, the economy, and everyday life were intertwined, as well as a historical exhibit on the development of Bohemia from the 9th century to World War I. A special highlight for families is the children's museum on the second floor of the new building, which presents topics such as mammoth hunting and the Middle Ages in an interactive, playful way. The passageway connecting the buildings also serves as a multimedia timeline of the history of Wenceslas Square. Besides the main building, the National Museum includes other sites, among them the Náprstek Museum of non-European cultures, the Lapidarium, and various memorials and museums of music and marionettes, which together provide a comprehensive picture of the Czech Republic's cultural heritage.