After our long walk across Wenceslas Square it is time to enter the National Museum via the historic building. Luckily there is no line and after paying the entrance fee we are in. It is quite a magnificent entrance and here we have to make a decision, should we start with the new or old building? Our decision is the new building as it seems it has fewer exhibits and then we can spend the rest of the time in the old building.
The problem is how we can get in the new building from the old building. We look and look at the map and finally discover there is an underground tunnel now we just have to find the entrance to the tunnel in a covered square inside the museum. Hint: it is via elevator.
The tunnel is quite interesting, it is long and it has a show running along its length. The show is about how Prague, specifically Wenceslas Square has changed through the last century from World War 1 through World War 2 and communism and now capitalism.
There are two major exhibits in the new building and we start with the first one which is focused on the wardrobe of the First Ladies of Czechia or Czechoslovakia prior. It is an interesting exhibit split into two rooms and learning about the First Ladies we learn also about their husbands and the history of the country.
Most outfits are not that special really but there are some nice ones especially after the end of the communist times. You can also see the accessories and learn about the hobbies and responsibilities of the First Lady.
The second exhibit is about the modern history of Czechia. There is a show about how the countries and borders changed since around World War 1 right outside the ticketed entrance. And inside that is where the story starts with World War 1 and Austro-Hungary calling on the Czech people to fight for the empire.
After a few decades of freedom Hitler decided to take part and the full control of Czechoslovakia with the complicity of England and France that wanted to avoid a war (spoiler alert: it didn’t work out). That is another section and a somber one including one about Jews and how they were killed in Dachau and other concentration camps.
The interwar period wasn’t all roses either, while Czechoslovakia was a very developed country it got hit hard by the recession forcing people to live in caves to save money.
There is also a section focused on the communist times, how people had supposedly a social contract, they were living in relative luxury as long as they didn’t confront the communist regime. Sounds a bit like China, to us.
Next we return to the historical building and right next to the elevator we notice a funny, to us, exhibit. It is about minerals in Arizona with photos and samples, we traveled thousands of miles to see an exhibit about our home state.
We start the exploration of the historical building from the top. We learn that there is an actual viewing platform above the cupola but we have to wait until we are let up to explore it, likely they don’t want too many people on the glass floor. The view is beautiful, we can see Wenceslas Square and the whole of Prague from the top.
We then start descending and the next floor is a doozy. You can see the “Grand Hall” with red carpet covered stairs going up and down, it feels like we are in a very fancy opera house or a palace.
From here we can see the cupola from below and the impressive murals. It feels like the museum building itself is a museum here….
We take our time looking at the paintings and murals, they follow different stories or myths and we enjoy trying to identify them as we walk around.
A one room exhibit is dedicated to Yugoslavia during the communist times and how the frenemy relationship with Moscow affected the people in Czechoslovakia working with the Yugoslav regime.
Next is the natural science section. It can be quite fun especially the larger than live insects and crabs. The giant squid is live size though, quite scary.
There is also a section about the birds and how they conquered the air, something that we obviously quite enjoy.
We are quite hungry now so we decide to take a lunch break and descend on the magnificent stairs towards the internal cafeteria which is near the elevator that went down to the corridor linking the old with the new building.
We buy some sweets and soda and sit down for a while resting our tired feet. The food is good and reinvigorated we return upstairs to the history section of the museum.
The history section in the old building covers the era that were not covered in the new building, everything up to World War 1. We start in chronological order with prehistoric times and the bronze age. There are some ancient carvings and lots of bronze jewelry and tools that we marvel at.
The piece de resistance is an ancient burial showing how people were buried, what objects were provided to them for the afterlife and even the tomb covering.
Moving to the early medieval times we see objects both from Magyars and from the earliest Czech people. There are some beautiful jewelry pieces that wouldn’t look out of place in a modern store and a belt buckle showcasing a horse, which makes lots of sense given that horses were highly valued.
As Christianity makes inroads the exhibit switches to beautiful books and religious themed objects as well as weapons, lots of weapons. With the medieval times came a lot of fighting with all neighbors and even further flunged kingdoms.
Then Bohemia and Moravia were taken over by the Austrian empire with them helping to lift the Turkish siege of Vienna and being in general an important part of the empire.
The history section ends with the building of the museum and the tensions in Czechia between the Czech and German speakers that especially prior to WW2 led to the claims by Hitler and annexation of Czechia and then afterwards to the exodus of Germans out of the areas were they were the majority previously.
After the history section we have one more hour that we spend mostly in the geological area of the museum. There are lots of rocks exhibited here and they all have labels that we can easily understand. Of course we look more at how exceptional they are, some are very beautiful really.
There is also a section about meteorites and the highlight, a section with fluorescent stones that are quite special and we always enjoy to see.
We spend the last minutes before closing in the shop and then in the natural sciences section especially in the earlier era. The animals and sealife was weirder and weirder the farther back in time we go and it is well displayed, we really feel we learned a lot when we leave.. And then it is back via Wenceslas Square to our hotel where we pick our bags and it is time to go to the airport, using Uber, to relax in the lounge before our flight to Bucharest.
