About
The Czech Technical Museum in Prague (Národní technické muzeum) consists of over 14 permanent exhibitions as well as several seasonal or temporary exhibits. Offsite there is also the Railroad Museum, and Mining museum.
History
The Czech Technical Museum (Národní technické muzeum) was established in 1908 and has been in its current location since 1941, but its roots go back to 1717 as the collections of the professional engineering school in Prague. Then in 1806 as the collections of the polytechnical institute and in 1874 as the Czech industrial museum. Finally, on July 5th 1908, the “Technical Museum of the Czech Kingdom” was created to present the technological advancements of the Czech people.
In 1918, after Czechoslovakia gained its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the museum was renamed to “The Czechoslovakian Technical Museum“. In 1938, construction of the current building started, and was completed in 1941, at which point the nazis seized the building to house the postal ministry of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The museum was housed in Karlin for the remainder of the war, but was closed in 1944
After a long fight, the museum was reopened in its current location in 1948. Of course in 1951, the communists nationalized the museum, and occupied one third of the building with non-museum activities. It was in 1990 shortly after the velvet revolution, and the Czech Republic freed itself from the tyranny of communism, that the museum was able to take over the building they built, for the exclusive use of the museum.
In 2003 the museum started a major renovation project to return the building to the state it was originally envisioned to be, and the state the museum is in today.
Permanent exhibitions
Architecture, Construction And Design
Interesting that it contains so many studies of the local architecture of Prague and the Czech Republic, as well as the many proposals that were never built, my favorite would be the proposal to remove Letnà hill, to avoid digging a tunnel.
Astronomy
Many significant discoveries have been made throughout history by Czech astronomers. During the reign of Emperor Rudolf II, many astronomers called Prague home, including Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe, due to the support of science by the emperor
Transportation
By far the largest collection by size in the Czech Technical Museum, is the Transportation exhibit hall, pictured above. Planes Trains Automobiles motorcycles, bicycles and ships. I initially thought it was the strangest thing that a landlocked country would have any maritime history, but then I remembered they were part of the Austro Hungarian empire, that wasn’t land locked.
The collection of historic bicycles is really cool, so many examples of different types of propulsion utilizing all kinds of belts on pulleys, a lot of outside the box thinking went on in the early days of bicycles.
Photo Studio
This exhibit showcases the various techniques through history to not only take a picture, but to also process those pictures. The exhibit contains one of the oldest daguerreotypes in existence, a still life taken in 1839 by the inventor himself.
Mining
The mining exhibit was unfortunately closed during our visit, but I understand it is very cool, with a simulated mine that you can enter.
Metallurgy
The metallurgy exhibit was also unfortunately closed during our visit
Chemistry Around Us
Something I was not aware of until I visited this exhibit, is that the soft contact lens was invented by a Czech scientist Otto Wichterle. The alchemy section was also very interesting, I do not remember the name of the king who was obsessed with alchemy, but he brought alchemists from all over Europe to figure out how to turn lead into gold…
Intercamera
This actually sits behind the “Photo Studio”, and focuses on more modern photography, up to and including digital. This is very interesting since you see a current progression into where we are today in photography.
Measurement Of Time
If you are interested in time keeping, this is the place for you, spanning the time from sun dials up to current atomic clocks. There are many stunning examples of historic timekeeping devices, and the tools to make them.
Merkur Playroom
The Czech Technical Museum would be remiss if it did not have an exhibit to salute Merkur toys. for those of you that are not aware of Merkur. They are a technical building toy that inspires children to become engineers and designers along the same line as Erector and Mechano sets along with Lego. Otto Wichterle used Merkur to design and prototype the machine for making soft contact lenses.
Printing
Gutenburg changed the world Jakub Husník and Karel Klíč, improved the view. Together these two Czech men improved the lithography process for printing images. The printing exhibit walks the visitor through the history of the printing process up to and including digital printing.
Technology In The Home (Appliances)
The Czech Technical Museum paying homage to consumer goods. It is very interesting to see the differences of the way life was behind the Iron Curtain, and western goods. It is not that the goods were that different, but the accessibility and quality of the goods was the big thing
Technology in Toys
Closed during our visit
Sugar and Chocolate
Czech Technical Museum has a special place in their heart for sweets, since is was Czech sugar tycoons that financed the original museum. The exhibit is primarily a layout of a sugar factory for processing sugar beets in to sugar.
Television Studio
As a part of the refurbishment of the Czech Technical Museum that was completed in 2013, Czech Television donated a full blown operational studio.
Location
The Czech Technical Museum is located in the Letnà area of Prague, or Prague 7, on the other side of the river and not near the Charles Bridge where few tourists dare to travel, but that is another story, for another time.
Getting to the Czech Technical Museum will require some walking, unless you take an uber door to door, but what is the fun in that.
You can take tram 1, 8, 12, 25, 26 and get off at the Letenské náměstí stop, walk south on Ovenečhka Street about 3 blocks and the Czech Technical Museum is the big building with the jet plane on top, the bad thing is you are in the back, and have to walk around the building to get in.
Admission
Tickets are 280 Koruna for adults and kids (6 to 15) are 60 Koruna, there are assorted reduced fare like the family plan at 560 Koruna
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