Chateau Star with Historical Exhibition and Museum of Czech Literature

Tel.: +420 235 357 930

Info Telefon: +420 235 352 600
Besucher-Email: post@pamatniknarodnihopisemnictvi.cz
http://www.pamatniknarodnihopisemnictvi....

The Department of Art Collections keeps about 350 000 works of art, mostly graphic art (about 220 000 prints), drawings (about 95 000 pieces), and bookplates (about 50 000 pieces), mostly from the 19th and 20th century. The funds also hold about 4300 pictures, 2300 sculptures, 2500 posters, 2500 maps and many realia, as e.g. furniture, process-blocks, coins, glass, porcelain and stoneware etc., where they throughout represent objects from the individual collection funds.

In the overall number of collectibles, there are included 125 personal collections of Czech writers (Sv. Cech, J. Drda, J. V. Fric, J. Holecek, J. Hora, E. E. Kisch, E. Krásnohorská, L. Masínová, V. Nezval, J. E. Purkyne, J. V. Sládek, V. Tille, J. Vrchlický), artists (M. Ales, E. Bednárová, K. Hlaváèek, Fr. Kobliha, J. Konùpek, Z. Kratochvíl, K. Müller, K. Teige, J. Váchal), collectors' funds (J. Deml, J. Karásek ze Lvovic, B. M. Klika, J. Knytl, J. Krecar, J. Portman, A. Sánka) and publishers' funds (Druzstevní práce, Hyperion, Kvasnièka a Hampl, J. Otto, Solc a Simácek, J. R. Vilímek), containing altogether over 250 000 items.

The Literary Archive contains funds presenting by themselves the most complete collection of archival sources to the study of Czech Literary History of the 19th and 20th century. The collection contains at present 2031 personal, corporation, editorial and other funds, the photo archive (some 100 000 positives and negatives), the Cuttings Archive (about 500 000 sheets), audio and video recordings (some 3500 items) and further material. In all, there are more than 6 million archival documents.

The collection of the Literary Archive originated gradually during the 19th and 20th century. Its basis is the funds acquired since the foundation of the National Museum in Prague (1818), part of which the Literary Archive originally was. During the last century, documents to the History of Science and Literature from the period of National Revival were acquired, in particular the literary remains of F. L. Celakovský, G. Dobner, J. Dobrovský, K. J. Erben, J. Jungmann, J. Kollár, Fr. Palacký, P. J. Safaøík. In the eighties, manuscripts and correspondence of K. H. Borovský, K. H. Mácha, B. Nemcová, and many others were acquired.

 

City Gallery Prag - Bilek' s Villa

Fax.: +420 233 323 664

Info Telefon: +420 233 321 200
Besucher-Email: ghmp@volny.cz
http://www.citygalleryprague.cz/...

ATTENTION: open only on weekends 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Frantisek Bílek´s (1872-1941) studio in Bílek´s villa is open for visitors; the permanent exposition that introduces the works from his vintage creative period to visitors is placed in another part of the building.

Ambiguousness and ambivalence of the symbolical works forces one to active perception, to attempt to analyse their meaning. For František Bílek´s work this decoding is made more challenging by the author´s complicated thinking and completely original way of phrasing. Without dependence on the previous development of Czech sculpture of the 19th century, he created his own symbolical language based upon dynamic line, sharp shape and emphasis on the meaning of the gesture, in which he connected in a unique way the symbolism of Art Nouveau with Christian and the Oriental spiritual tradition.

Expressiveness and strangeness in that Czech atmosphere, almost in irritating way, affected particularly his early compositions, rose above all from a deep faith in God. Bílek took his creation as a mission to through art "sacrifice to regain one´s brother´s health", e.g. to serve through his works to advise and to moral edification of humankind. Therefore, in his own houses he created the studios always as the essential space, on the basis of which the other spaces in the building were conceived. Bílek´s works are characteristic by the use of symbolical connections of the natural and spiritual worlds.


There are exhibits of many of his essential works in the studio of Bílek´s villa, e.g. Future Conquerors (1931-1937), Grief (1908-1909), Golgotha (1892), How Time Curves Wrinkles (1902), Adam and Eve (1921), Anxiety for the Body, for the Word and for the Canopy of the Heavens (1909), Madonna (1901), Bound (1917), and also very remarkable furniture collection which was made according to his design.

Picture: (c) Radio Prag
 

Eco-technical Museum - Electrotechnical Museum - The old pumping station

http://www.pvk.cz/show.asp?column=39...

weekends from April until October, 10 a.m. - 17 p.m., booked groups of more than 10 people possible also at other hours.

The old pumping station formed a part of the Prague sewerage system built between 1895 - 1906 by William H. Lindley. It was in service until 1967, when a new plant (Waste Water Treatment Plant) was opened. In the 90´s a group of enthusiasts converted the abandoned object into an industrial museum, showing underground lybyrinth of the historical Prague sewerage. Among a variety of steam-powered vehicles the museum also houses two original pumping steam engines operating on special occasions.

 

Adolf Loos-Villa Müller

Fax.: +420 233 323 957

Info Telefon: +420 224 312 012
Besucher-Email: vila.studovna@muzeumprahy.cz
http://www.mullerovavila.cz/english/vila...

April-October:
Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends: 9am - 6pm
Tours begin at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm
November-March:
Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends: 10am - 5pm
Tours begin at 10am, 12 noon, 2pm and 4pm

The realisation of this, the most important of Adolf Loos' works in the Czech Lands, would have been unthinkable without the perfect understanding that existed between the architect and the investors - the M¸ller family. Their harmonious relationship, underpinned by mutual respect and faithful friendship, created the ideal foundations for the building of the architectural work. During their many consultations the M¸llers revealed much about their private life to the architect, who was endowed with intuition and social sensitivity. For their contentment he created a multi-purpose, universal dwelling combining both formal and intimate functions. In this way a work was created that spoke of architecture rooted in an intellectual basis, now both unusual and yet contemporary.

Picture: Wikipedia Commons.
 

Public Transit (MHD) Museum - Stresovice tram depot

Tel.: +420 233 323 873
Fax.: +420 296 124 901

Info Telefon: +420 233 322 432

The Museum of Labour Movement

Tel.: +420 220 562 231

Info Telefon: +420 220 560 214

Central archive and museum of the Church of Czechoslovak Hussites

Fax.: +420 220 398 123

Info Telefon: +420 220 398 131
Besucher-Email: archiv@ccsh.cz

Museum and Archive of Pop Culture

Fax.: 233 350 790

Info Telefon: 776 141 531-2
Besucher-Email: info@popmuseum.cz
http://www.popmuseum.cz/index.php?l=en...

Wednesday - Sunday 4 p.m.-8 p.m (or phone order outside this schedule)

Tram. 22, Stop "U Kaštanu"

The "Popmuseum" is a shorter version for "The Museum and Archive of Popular Music association" and its main project - the permanent exhibition and an information centre in Prague. It was established by a voluntary independent association of citizens, united by their shared interest in Czech and Slovak popular music and in material illustrating its history, including audio, written, visual and audio-visual records, as well as other documents. It is a legal entity, registered since 10 November 1998 by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. Its aim is to initiate and support the establishment of a museum and archive of the popular music as a state institution. Such institution does not exist in the Czech Republic and the Popmuseum endeavours to develop activities that should – at least partly – substitute its functions.

and what it offers?

WE ARCHIVE
We run a depository in Prague - Horní Poèernice, where we gather and archive written documents, recordings and audio-visual records, musical instruments and apparatus connected with the development of popular music, as well as estates and memorabilia related to various important personalities or events in Czech and Slovak popular music. The archived material serves as a source basis for studies and research and as a depository from which to draw exhibition displays. We approach popular music in its full breadth without regard to style, genre, or time period. Construction of the archive is an on-going activity and its development is dependent on received grants.

We also have a Moravian branch - Poparchiv in Brno, where an electronic archive is emerging and where - for example – vinyl records and covers are deposited.

WE INFORM
We provide an information service for the professional and wider public. In our main space in the Kaštan cultural centre we offer databases, specialised magazines and literature. We answer queries concerning the history of Czechoslovak popular music. Our archive centre contains a wide range of historical recordings and audio-visual documents to see and listen to.

We receive visits from Czech and foreign journalists, students, and researchers studying or investigating a certain period in the history of popular music, as well as from curators, preparing exhibitions with themes linked with popular music.

WE EXHIBIT
In the Popmuseum you can view a permanent exhibition of musical intruments, focussing on electric guitars of Czechoslovakian make and a selection of keyboard instruments used in the former Czechoslovakia.

Other areas of the exhibition space are dedicated to the temporary thematic exhibitions which often expand to other spaces within the Kaštan cultural centre such as the entrance hall, staircase walls, and the bar on the 1st floor.

We also organise other temporary exhibitions in Prague - e.g. in our own alternative gallery in the Vagon music club, and the Municipal Library - but also in other places within the Czech Republic.

WE AMUSE
We offer various interactive activities using musical software, for example allowing you to test your composing talent, experience the work of a sound engineer, and mix the tracks of a recording. You can also try out real electric musical instruments or sing karaoke-style into a microphone along with a pre-recorded backing track.

We also organise concerts and projections for you, either in the Kaštan cultural centre or at the Vagon music club.

History of the POPMUSEUM:
at the beginning was “Bigbít”
The civic association entitled, The Museum and Archive of Popular Music was set up on 6 November 1998 in the wine bar U Sudu in Prague 1 by Aleš Opekar, Petr Hrabalik, Radek Diestler and, after a telephonic consultation, also Josef Kytnar from Brno was included. The Ministry of the Interior registered the new association on 10 November 1998. By the end of 1999 the association had about twenty members and was striving to find suitable space to house the permanent exhibition in Prague. They started assembling an archive, the basis of which consisted of materials collected in the 2nd half of the 1990s during the preparatory work for the Czech TV series which was entitled “Bigbít” (bigbeat) and depicted the history of Czechoslovak rock music.

Popmuseum acquired support and grants from the project “Prague – European City of Culture 2000”, from City of Prague, Metropolitan District of Prague 1, Czech Music Fund, OSA (The Performing and Mechanical Rights Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), and other institutions. The museum was open to the public by the end of March 2000: the first exhibition in Prague 1 in Besední ulice no. 3, in spaces of former Janáèkova Hall was entitled “BIGBÍT”. The exhibition and the whole interior including the furniture had an imprint of the architect David Vávra, who designed it in the spirit of so-called Brussels style from the turn of the 1950s.

The exhibits were presenting the history of Czechoslovak rock music from 1956 to 1972. The spectator could see here e.g. a collection of record covers, the manuscripts of Pavel Bobek or Karel Kryl, the baritone saxophone of Jan Spálený, the guitars of Radim Hladík or Pavol Hammel, a number of photographs, written documents, and a selection of recordings or audio-visual samples of those periods. The collection was supplemented by the period radio and television receivers, gramophones, tape recorders or even “wire-phone”. The visitors were allowed to play selected historical instruments, using the stylish period apparatus.

After the spectacular opening, featuring, for instance, Vladimír Mišík as a performer, the exhibition was open to the public six days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The project was attractive by its novelty and originality.

In the following periods of 2001 and 2002, the functioning of the museum stabilised in proportions adequate to the standard demand of the public. The exhibition was open only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and any time on individual request. The visitors included the Czechs (a typical visitor was a parent – an eyewitness with his offspring – and the parent himself became the guide to the exhibition, explaining all the details and circumstances of each era), but also foreigners, who were usually younger people with wider cultural interests. There were also frequent visits of large groups of school pupils or pensioners accompanied by a guide.

 

City Gallery Prague - Chateau Troja

Fax.: +420 283 851 626

Info Telefon: +420-283 851 614
Besucher-Email: troja-ghmp@volny.cz

ATTENTION: April-Oct. Tues. – Sun. 10.00 – 18.00, Nov. – March Sat., Sun. 10.00 – 17.00 h

Count Václav Vojtech of Sternberk started building of the early Baroque Troja Château in 1679. The family of Sternberk was one of the oldest Czech noble families and the Troja Château was intended to honour its owner.

The architect of the Troja Château was Jean Baptiste Mathey, who was of French origin. In the design he drew on the experience of his sojourn in Italy and was inspired with the type of Roman ex-urban villa. The central and dominant space in the building is the large hall, from which runs a corridor with adjacent saloons on both sides. The sides of the building are vertically and horizontally completed with two-storeyed tower belvederes.

The sculptural decoration of the double-flight stairs leading to the garden was entrusted to the great Dresden artists George and Paul Hermann. The monumental sculptures decorating the stairs represent the fight of Titans and ancient gods. Each sculpture on the perimeter of the stairs represents an ancient god, daytime, season and continent allegories.

The painting works, on the castle´s ground floor, are mainly the work of Carpoforo Tencalla, and, on the first floor, of Francesco Marchetti and his son Giovanni Francesco. To complete the illusionary decoration of the large main hall, the building owner called for Flemish painters Abraham and Isaac Godynov. The iconographic programme is oriented above all to the celebration of the imperial family of Habsburg.
 

Historical Museum - Archive

Fax.: +420 220 877 863

Info Telefon: +420 220 802 530
Besucher-Email: archivnm@nm.cz
http://www.nm.cz/...

National Museum