Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové

In the centre of Hradec Králové, on the banks of the Elbe River, in a beautiful building built by architect Jan Kotěra, there is the Museum of Eastern Bohemia which houses one of the largest zoological collections in the country.

The Museum in Hradec Králové has a very varied history. The museum's beginnings date back to the 1880s, when the entire country was experiencing a boom in the establishing of museums and various cabinets of natural history or amusing curiosities. The Hradec Museum was founded in 1880 and initially focused on collections of antiques and historical objects from the region. The collections gradually grew in size and in 1896 the museum was split into the Municipal Historical Museum and the Industrial Museum. 

Later, during the First Republic, the pedagogical and natural history museums were added. All the collections were eventually united after the Second World War and gave rise to today's institution, which is still located on the banks of the Elbe in a building designed by architect Jan Kotěra. The Natural History Department of the museum, formerly the independent Natural History Museum, manages some very rare exhibits and also witnesses the exploration and discovery of the flora and fauna of the Hradec Králové region. The first exhibits entered the collections thanks to the local “Agricultural Institute for the Cultural and Economic enhancement of Northeast Bohemia”, in which many prominent naturalists were actively involved. For example, a professor of Charles University František Ulrich, a prominent mineralogist, who later donated exhibits to the museum, which today form the basis of its geological collection, spent a very long time here. But the museum was also stocked by other famous naturalists. Emil Hadač or mycologist František Smotlacha significantly enriched the botanical collection. The entomological collection, which is the largest of the entire museum and one of the most extensive entomological collections in the country is of great importance within the collections. Equally as important is the collection of marine molluscs, which includes some rare organisms that are now subject to the CITES trade ban, and most newer museums do not have them at all. Similarly, the collection of lampreys and fish is rare in the Czech Republic and is one of the most extensive. Most of the exhibits, however, are only available for viewing on request and are of rather technical value. The museum's natural history collections thus serve primarily for specialists to monitor the development of the region's fauna.

www.muzeumhk.cz