National Museum in Prague – Virtual Tour

The National Museum is a Czech museum exhibiting natural scientific and historical collections.

The museum was founded in 1818 and today houses about 14 million items from the areas of natural history, history, arts, music, and librarianship, which are located in numerous buildings.

After the French Revolution, royal and private collections of art, science, and culture were the foundation of the museum.

The beginnings of the many collections dated to 1796 when the private Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts was founded for “the renewed promotion of art and taste.”

In 1800 the group founded the Academy of Fine Arts, which would train students.

The museum did not acquire its historical collection until the 1830s when Romanticism arose. The institution of the museum was increasingly seen as a center for Czech nationalism.

Nearly a century later that the National Museum’s historical treasures equaled its collection in natural science.

Highlights of the National Museum in Prague

“At the Moulin-Rouges, Two Women Waltzing” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Hoards from Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia
Geological and mineralogical Exhibition
Palaeontological Exhibition
Zoological Exhibition
Collection of the prehistory of Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia in the National Museum

National Museum (Prague) Collection

The Natural Museum Collection – Located: Prague 10, Horní Počernice
- Mineralogy,
- Paleontology
- Mycology
- Botany
- Entomology
- Zoology
- Anthropology
Historical Collections
- The Department of Prehistory and Protohistory
- The Department of the Old Czech History
- Medieval Collection
- The Department of Ethnography
- Department of Numismatics
- Department of Theater