The Litomyšl Regional Museum

1891 

In addition to the legacy of Bedřich Smetana or the painter Josef Váchal, the charming Litomyšl also hides natural sciences treasures. Famous figures from the history of Czech natural history or important marks the local region left in astronomy, everything can be seen in the local Litomyšl Regional Museum, which has been serving the public since 1891.

 

The origins of today`s Litomyšl Museum date back to the end of the 19th century, when three young teachers from the local grammar school decided that the town deserved its own museum. In 1890 Josef Štěpánek, Jindřich Barvíř and František Kunstovný initiated the establishment of a committee to take care of the collections and the operation of the new town museum. A museum association was formed, with 105 local citizens signing up, and in September 1891 the new museum, housed in the town school, was opened to the public. The members of the museum association, among whom the local collector Quido Šimek stood out, quickly began acquiring new exhibits and they soon filled the insufficient space of the museum. As the museum grew, it required more dignified conditions for operation and from 1926 all the collections were moved to the old building of the Piarist grammar school in Litomyšl, which became famous, among other things, for the fact that the writer Alois Jirásek taught there. The museum, now called the Litomyšl Regional Museum, is still housed in this building today. Although the museum has several affiliated organisations and institutions, such as the Bedřich Smetana House or the Josef Váchal Museum, its core collections are housed in the former Piarist grammar school. There are rare zoological exhibits that come mainly from around Litomyšl and were acquired for the museum by local scientists such as zoologist Karel Podhajský or ornithologist Josef Musílek. There are also entomological collections commemorating important entomologists of the local region, such as one of the most important Czech entomologists František Klapálek or entomologist Viktor Janda. Besides biology, a part of the exhibition of natural sciences is also devoted to astronomy, which has a long tradition in Litomyšl and its surroundings dating back to the 16th century, and to the local Piarist order. Florus Stašek, the author of the first black-and-white photograph taken in the Czech lands, also came from this order and the photograph was taken in Litomyšl. A reproduction of his photograph and his first "Czech" camera is exhibited here. The museum also has a separate -which is an untypical- geographical exhibition containing mainly old maps and atlases. The most important exhibit is the so-called Müller map of Bohemia from 1722, which measures three metres in height and is two and a half metres wide.

 

References

Urbánek, L.: Příroda Litomyšlska: město Litomyšl, 2018

 

Skřivánek, M.: Litomyšl. Paseka, 1997

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