Natural History Cabinet at the Kunín (Kunewald) Chateau

The cabinet of natural history was established at Kunín Chateau as early as the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries and its creation was the work of Countess Maria Walburga von Truchsess-Waldburg-Zeil (1762-1828) during the Enlightenment period. This collection existed until 1945, when it was dispersed to today unknown places. Since 2006 it has been again possible to visit a natural science cabinet at the chateau in Kunín. Bronislav Novosad arranged it from his mineralogical and palaeontological specimens. 

The original natural history cabinet at Kunín Castle was mainly a collection of minerals and fossils. The highly educated Countess Truchsess-Waldburg-Zeil, whose naturalistic tendencies represented the late Enlightenment, assembled this collection of natural history mainly for educational purposes. In the years 1792-1814, thanks to her efforts, a philanthropic educational institute was run at the Kunín castle, where great emphasis was placed on the teaching of natural sciences. Countess Truchsess-Waldburg-Zeil was acquiring mineralogical and palaeontological exhibits during her study tours in Europe, but the natural history collection was expanded even after her death in 1828. In that year the natural history collection numbered 3,000 pieces. In December 1945 the collection was supposedly complete, but then it was destroyed and the remains were probably taken to Opava or distributed to schools in Nový Jičín. A few fossils could be identified in one of the schools in Nový Jičín. Bronislav Novosad continued the glorious tradition of the natural history cabinet and after the restoration of the Kunín chateau he created a mineralogical and palaeontological exhibition, which has been made available to the public in two rooms on the ground floor of the chateau in 2006. In the first room there are not only minerals from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, but there are also examples of interesting minerals from all over the world, which Novosad acquired by exchange or purchased them. There are also geological maps and books, a microscope and a Mohse hardness scale. The second room contains fossils, regional finds from Štramberk, Příbor and Fulnek, as well as glacial striations typical for this region. This room also commemorates a prominent native of Příbor, physician, palaeontologist and geologist Mauric Remeš (1867-1959), his daughter Marie Remešová (married Kettnerová) (1900-1933), who was also a very active palaeontologist. And also other local collectors whose mineralogical finds expanded the collection. The above-mentioned exhibits from the original collection of Countess Marie Walburga von Truchsess-Waldburg-Zeil from the Nový Jičín school can also be found in the exhibition. It is an interesting fact, that the current natural history cabinet is not finished, but is regularly enriched with new additions.

Novosad, B.: Přírodovědný kabinet na zámku Kunín. In: Poodří, 1/2008, s. 21–22.

Neznámý autor: Kabinet přírodnin. In: Zámek Kunín. URL: http://zamek.kunin.cz/zamek/kabinet-prirodnin/?pageshowing=2 [15.9.2021].

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