National History Museum in Jesenice

The National History Museum in Jesenice is a regional institution that was founded by local enthusiasts after the Second World War. Today we can find here collections relevant to the nature and history of the Jesenice region and also an herb garden.

The origins of museology in Jesenice are tied with Karel Fibiger. This local teacher and writer assembled the first collection of objects and displayed it at the Town Hall. He was later joined by the couple Hermína and Karel Nebeský, who newly settled in Jesenice. The museum was officially founded in 1959 by Fibiger and the Nebeskýs. Karel Nebeský became its administrator. From the start the exhibits were displayed in the same building that houses the museum today, but only in one room. There was also a national history society at the museum, focused mainly on working with young people. 

In the region afflicted by the expulsion of the Germans, there was no shortage of interesting objects. The enthusiasts building the museum, however, were not so much interested in learning about the culture of the displaced inhabitants as they were in finding evidence of Jesenice`s “Slavic past”.

In the 1960s, the museum expanded into additional rooms. During the following decades until the fall of socialism, the museum was in a poor state, the exhibitions were neither of good quality nor attractive to visitors. The most valuable parts of the collections were kept in inadequate conditions. There were also stuffed animals in the museum, but almost none have survived to this day. Since the 1990s, the museum has been administered by the T. G. M. Museum in Rakovník.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the museum was expanded to include a regional natural history exhibition focusing on geology, dendrology, botany, zoology and the medicinal use of plants. A real zoological rarity is the taxidermized Chilean flamingo, which appeared near Jesenice in 1980, was captured and kept here in captivity for several years.

The national history museum is a proof that even after the Second World War there were regional national history and scientific societies and clubs in Czechoslovakia, which we usually associate with earlier times. Even in the difficult post-war period, the members of the association managed to assemble valuable collections and build an institution of national importance.

Interview se správkyní muzea, Roman Figura, 19.9.2019

https://www.muzeumtgm.cz/vlastivedne-muzeum-jesenice/muzeum-jesenice (cit. 13.04.2020)

Museum building (Author: RF)

Sign on the museum building (Author: RF)

Exposition in museum, chilean flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis (Author: RF)

The local flamingo used to be a popular figure. Photographed here with actress Jitka Molavcová. (Author: RF)

Exposition in museum, Eagle owl (Bubo bubo) (Author: RF)