The Jičín gunpowder store is originally an old ammunition depot in the eastern suburbs of Jičín, whose history dates back to the 18th century. The Austro-Hungarian army, the army of the Czechoslovak Republic and the Czechoslovak People's Army all used it. The last one eventually stopped using the building and in 1965 it became the property of the town. In the 1960s, thanks to the many astronomical discoveries and the era of the conquest of space, astronomy was very popular and in 1965 the city decided to use this site, which stood aside from the urban development, as a public observatory. The building was converted into an observatory designed by the architect Jiří Trejbal and the main observing instrument was a 300 mm reflecting telescope loaned by the Astronomical Society in Prague. However, the situation changed rapidly after the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. Gradually, the city cancelled the observatory activities and the building was again given to the army, this time it was used by Polish soldiers. The building survived the communist period in a very poor condition and the reopening of the observatory was not possible at first. It was only in 1999 and thanks to the activity of the local citizens and to financial donations, that the observatory could open and resume its activity. In 2016, thanks to a subsidy from the EU, the town renovated and modernised the entire building and opened it to the public as the Centre of Natural Sciences – The Jičín Observatory. Today, in addition to stargazing, the original site also hosts popularization lectures for the public and schools in all possible fields of natural sciences. The main telescopes are a reflector telescope with a diameter of 500 mm and a lens telescope with a diameter of 185 mm.
