Memorial to Joachim Barrande in Skryje (Museum)

The memorial in Skryje, dedicated to the palaeontological collections of Joachim Barrande (1799–1883) begun to be built as soon as 1883. The museum (memorial to J. Barrande) is dedicated to his work in Bohemia and to his later palaeontological research. Barrande described a huge number of fossilised trilobites and other Palaeozoic fauna from the Cambrian layers in Skryje and its surroundings. He came here while employed to plan the future horse-drawn railway to Radnice.

Barrande was an engineer working with precision rather than a naturalist. Apart from the horse-drawn railway, he was also busy with other design work in planning the emerging railway network. His entire work testifies to his great organizational skills and immeasurable diligence. He captioned his work with the motto: “What I have seen”. Out of conviction he did not propose any hypotheses, but described with the utmost precision the facts, which he considered the task of future generations to interpret. Thus, Charles Darwin already refers to Barrande`s work, while Barrande doesn`t mention Darwin`s in his studies at all. Barrande was not interested in the evolution of species ─ he considered them to be the immutable units of God`s creation. But he did carefully describe the individual evolutionary series of several species of trilobites. The best known is the evolutionary line of the species Sao hirsuta (Chlupáček skryjský in Czech) from the close locality “Pod Hruškou” in Skryje. 

Many professionals and amateurs collected fossils in Skryje. Following Barrande`s death a public exhibition in his honour began to be set up in a local hotel. It was moved several times and in 1984 it was taken over by the Rakovník Museum. Since 1997 the collection has been exhibited in the former school. 

 

Horný, R., Turek, V.: Joachim Barrande (1799–1893), Život, dílo a odkaz světové paleontologii. Národní muzeum, přírodovědecké muzeum, Praha 1999, 56 pp.

Marek, J., Šarič, R., Kácha, P.: Joachim Barrande, Říkali mu jemnostpán – People called him gentle man, Česká geologická služba, Praha 2013, 66 pp.

Kříž, J.: Joachim Barrande. Český geologický ústav, Praha 1999.

Svoboda, J., Prantl, F.: Barrandien. Geologie středočeského siluru a devonu v obrazech. ČSAV, Praha 1958, s. 33─54.

Chlupáč, I. (eds.): Paleozoikum Barrandienu. Český geologický ústav, Praha 1992.

Chlupáč, I., Budil, I.: Tajemné hlubiny času. Academia, Praha 2006. 

Rádl, E.: Dějiny biologických teorií novověku I. Academia, Praha 2006, s. 295─320, 395─400.

Památník Joachima Barranda ve Skryjích. URL: https://www.muzeumtgm.cz/pamatnik-joachyma-barranda-skryje/ [27. 7. 2021].

 

Barrande collected fossils of the Sao hirsuta trilobite species (Czech name Chlupáček skryjský) from the locality Pod Hruškou in Skryje. He managed to assemble a whole evolutionary line from larvae a few millimetres long to adults. The site is located on the left bank just beyond the Skryje bridge, but a stretch of grey-green shales rich in fossils can also be seen in the rubble above the bridge. (Author: J. Barrande: Système silurien du centre de la Bohême)