The Story of Prague (1920)/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
The Bohemian Museum
THE Bohemian Museum (Museum Kralovstvi Ceskéhö) has a great and twofold interest, both as containing most valuable relics of the past of Bohemia and as constituting the most important monument of the ‘Resurrection’ of Bohemia in the nineteenth century. I have already briefly referred to that movement, of which the Bohemian Museum is, with the National Theatre, the most prominent architectural expression. The society of the Bohemian Museum was founded on April 15, 1818, mainly through the exertions of Counts Kolowrat, Sternberg and Klebelsberg. Almost the whole Bohemian nobility favoured the new enterprise, and among its earliest patrons were members of the Auersberg, Kinsky, Schwarzenberg, Thun, Trautmannsdorf, Waldstein, Wratislaw families. I shall not, I hope, be accused of undue pride if I mention that I find the names of Counts Rudolph and Jerome Lutzow in one of the earliest lists of members. It is of more general interest to note that the list of members for the year 1824 contains as ‘Ehrermietglied’ the name of ‘Von Göthe, Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenachser, Staats minister and Geheimer Rath.’ This fact is noteworthy as proving how entirely the great mind of Göthe was exempt from the narrow-minded racial prejudice, which generally renders the Germans hostile to the development of the Bohemian people.
The collections of the museum were first housed in a modest building on the Hradcany, and then transferred to a larger building in the Prikopy or Graben. This also became insufficient, and the Bohemian Diet resolved in 1884 to erect the present building at the upper end of the Václavske Námesti—on the spot where the horse gate (Konska brána) of the new town stood. It was completed in 1891, and the museum was opened by the Archduke Charles Louis on the 18th of May of that year. The exterior of the building is decorated with statues. Entering the building, we first reach the fine vestibule, which is decorated with great splendour. The ground floor, besides this large hall, contains (at the left angle) the archives, the rich library—the use of which is liberally granted to foreign visitors—the valuable print-room, and several halls used by patriotic associations. Ascending the fine marble staircase, we first reach the so-called ‘Pantheon,’ a large, handsome hall in which the meetings of the society of the museum and of the Bohemian Academy are held.
Walking through the rooms according to their numbering, we find in Hall I. a very interesting collection of MSS. and early printed works from the library and archives that are exhibited here. Here are the MSS. of many ancient Bohemian books that have been recently reprinted, among them the famed MS. of Kralové Dvur, the genuineness of which has raised so great a controversy in Bohemia. It has been placed next to an undoubtedly genuine early Bohemian MS., and to those that are not experts in paleography the two appear absolutely identical. The collection of early printed works is also very interesting; among them is the first book printed in Bohemian, the Kronyka Trojanská, printed at Plzen in 1468. On the walls hang ancient engravings, mostly by Sadeler, representing views of Prague in the seventeenth century; two of these are reproduced in this volume. It would be interesting to deal more fully with this hall that contains an epitome of the history and literature of Bohemia, but want of space renders this impossible. I may add that an excellent catalogue is sold in the museum. Hall II. contains a valuable collection of coins, medals and seals. The collection of Bohemian coins is complete. After Hall III., used for offices, we arrive at Halls IV., V. and VI., which contain prehistoric remains discovered in various parts of Bohemia. Hall VII. requires little notice, but Hall VIII. is one of the most interesting. It contains a noteworthy collection of arms and armoury. Here are several specimens of the famed “cep” or battle-club of the Hussites, very curious painted Hussite shields, some of which bear the arms of Prague, the sword with which the Bohemian leaders were decapitated on the memorable 21st of June 1621, and the sword of Gustavus Adolphus. Here, too, the tablets commemorating the Compacts are preserved. The other halls on this and on the second floor contain most valuable mineralogical, zoological and botanical collections, which, being almost entirely confined to Bohemia, are most instructive to those who wish to study these features of the country. On the second floor there is also a very curious collection of figures representing the—now partly extinct—national costumes of the various parts of Bohemia.