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The
origins of the present Museum of Central Bohemia date from 1957, when a
provincial local history museum was
founded in Roztoky after many years of
voluntary work by local historians.
Their efforts had initially led to the opening of a
Local History
Department at the Cultural Association in 1953, and two years later
to
the opening of a Local History Museum in Tiché údolí in Roztoky.
Preserving
Roztoky Chateau to use it as a museum was
a priority.
From 1957
to 1961 there was intensive work on the new museum, primarily the
overall
reconstruction of the chateau and its grounds. Building work continued in
subsequent decades. The chateau was opened to the public in 1961. The
museum
originally only had local scope, but in 1963 it came under the
Central Bohemia
Regional Council and became a district museum, and in 1974
a regional museum,
acquiring its present name. In the mid-1970s the
acquisition of other buildings in
the vicinity of the chateau contributed
significantly to the museum’s expansion,
namely the Brauner Mill and the
adjacent studio of the painter Zdenka Braunerová
(1858 – 1934) which after
essential modifications housed most of the museum’s
administrative and
research offices. In 2000 – 2004 an extension of the museum’s
work and the
expansion of its collections led to the building of an archaeology
department in Libčice nad Vltavou,
in a former farmhouse that the museum had
acquired
at the beginning of the 1990s. From 1994 to 2001 the museum was under
the
Czech Ministry of Culture, but since October 2001 it has been funded by
the
Central
Bohemia Region.
The
museum currently manages extensive collections, covering archaeology,
natural history, history, art history and literature, with over
500 000
items, some of
which have an importance that goes beyond the Central
Bohemia region. In caring
for the cultural heritage it is well-known for
its specialised and unique conservation
and restoration workshops. For
exhibitions it mainly uses the chateau, with
permanent exhibitions and
each year a number of temporary exhibitions and
associated events. In 2005
the museum opened a permanent exhibition in Zdenka
Braunerová’s studio. |
