A tour of The Story of Prague immersive museum is an amazing experience offering a glut of information about what Prague was like in the past, as Remayah Tulloch-Hunter discovered.
For tourists from abroad, a trip to The Story of Prague immersive museum experience is highly recommended to learn how its past shaped what it is today.
The museum includes three floors, covering the medieval Prague, World War Two and communism and freedom.
Two years on from its opening in late January of 2024, the museum brings 800 years of Prague history to life, giving people a chance to listen through audio explanations around each floor.
The first floor of the museum included full lists of battles, thrones, torture and suffering but it focuses on heroism, art and optimistic legends such as the stories of Rudolf II, Jan Zizka and the Hussites, the Knights’ Hall, torture chambers, the old town hall and Astronomical Clock, and finally of John of Nepomuk.
The Old Town Hall was the first town hall that was built in Bohemia, founded in 1338 by King John of Luxembourg. King John planned an arcade above the the town hall with a perfect viewpoint from where he could watch the jousting tournaments.
He was born around 1296 in the noble house of Luxembourg, became King of Bohemia in 1310.
King John had a son, Charles IV, who was born in 1316 and became King of Bohemia, King of Romans and Holy Roman Emperor after his father. He founded the New Town of Prague, including Charles University in 1348 but died in 1378.
A unique element on display at the town hall since 1410 is the Prague Astronomical Clock, which is one of the oldest astronomical tower clocks in the world and the only one that is still functional.
The clock has been repaired but was broken for as long as a hundred to 150 years. Clockmaker Master Hanus is often credited as the creator of the clock as a symbol of human ingenuity, perseverance, and the desire to understand time and the universe.
Different parts of the clock stand for the central European time, the zodiac signs, the calendar ring, the moon and finally the golden sun.
Rudolf II lived from 1522 to 1612 and spent seven years as a teenager studying at the royal court of Madrid in Spain where he arrived with 370 courtiers on 16 ships. After moving to Prague he refused to leave the city for the rest of his life.
On the first floor of the museum, displays show Rudolf II was a passionate collector of art and invested a lot of money into a variety of arts but also anything unique that caught his eye. He expanded his collections to such an enormous size that he had to change the layout of Prague Castle.
He built the Kunst cabinets which consist of four large rooms, with one of them in the Spanish hall being the largest room in Prague Castle. The Kunst cabinets had 3,000 paintings by many famous artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci as well as large numbers of sculptures, vases, scientific instruments and many natural materials, gemstones, and semi-precious stones.
However, the Rudolphine collections were robbed by the Swedish army at the end of the Thirty Years War.
Finally, the first floor exhibits mention the war that lasted 30 years, damaging many buildings across Prague.
Many of the weapons used during the war were drafted entirely from ordinary agricultural tools, including Vozu Na Sklizen Bojove vozy (harvest wagons used for war) and a hand-held firearm that was spreading in use around Bohemia and the rest of Europe. They used large artillery weapons and a small hand-held firearm with which it was almost impossible to hit the enemy even at close age.
According to a poll in 2005, philosopher Jan Hus is the seventh most important Czech person in history, despite being persecuted, banished from Prague and later burned to death for his reformist preaching.
His death had the opposite side with his preaching becoming the foundation of an entire political movement.
Hus had travelled to Germany, under the protection of the Roman King Sigismud of Luxembourg who had drawn up documents to guarantee his safe travels. However, the king’s power did not stretch as far as the town of Constance, or its religious council, who ordered Hus to be burnt at the stake.
Jan Zizka was born in 1360 and died in 1424, known for being an undefeated military leader. However, he was a robber in his younger years before emerging as a military leader who all of Europe feared for his battle exploits and his ability to defeat armies that were several times larger. Even today, cadets in the US West Point academy learn about his successful military career and the most expensive film in Czech history, called Medieval, was about him.
The next part of the museum focuses on World War Two and communism, detailing where the two dark periods began, how life was back then and what led to their end.
The second floor of the museum includes the Prague Uprising, Hitler in Prague, bombing in Prague, life under communism and Operation Anthropoid (the assassination of Nazi city official Reinhard Heydrich).
On February 14, 1945, Prague was hit by devastating bombing which was caused by a mistake of navigational error, but was exploited by both Nazi and communist propaganda. In March 1945, the American bombers returned to Prague but this time intentionally. The American plan was to destroy the airport and the factories where the Germans were manufacturing weapons and dreaded tank destroyers.
One of the bombs landed near a reptile terrarium. The pressure wave damaged the glass and the snakes were free to slither around Prague.
During the accidental bombing by the Americans, the aircraft were carrying incendiary and demolition bombs, and dropped 152 tons of bombs which were far more threatening to civilian areas. More than 2,500 houses were damaged and 700 people died with 1,200 injured. During the war, 11,000 people in Prague were left homeless.
The Nazis had invaded the Czech lands in 1939, sweeping across the border and occupying both Bohemia and Moravia within two hours, and even Prague castle. The Wehrmacht took over the entire country, which was split between the angry Czechs while many ethnic Germans welcomed Hitler’s army.
The relationship between Czechoslovakia and Germany had been increasingly strained for several years especially since Adolf Hitler assumed office as German chancellor in 1933.
Czechoslovakia fell apart under the German pressure, the Slovak Republic declaring independence and Hungary taking over the territory of subcarpathian ruthenia.
On March 15, 1939, the Czech people woke up to a country that no longer belonged to them after Hitler’s troops settled in Prague castle and the streets were filled with announcements written in broken Czech. Meanwhile, in Berlin, Czech president Emil Hacha was forced by Hitler, under the threat of the immediate bombing of Prague, to sign a joint declaration surrendering Bohemia and Moravia.
In the beginning of May 1945, the American army advanced into Czech territory from the west while the Soviet army advanced from the east. However, due to Hitler already being dead, everyone knew the war was ending.
On May 4, the Czech national council declared the end of the protectorate and people all over the city eagerly removed German signs and hoisted the national flag. On May 5, Prague radio broadcast a provocative message in Czech, which the people of the city understood as a signal for action.
The Nazi persecution of Jews in Prague as part of the largest Jewish genocide in human history, the Holocaust, began with their loss of citizenship following a ban on them entering forests in and around the city. The implementation of the Nuremberg laws in the protectorate separated Jews from the rest of the population and deprived them of their property.
Operation Anthropoid was the English codename for a parachute mission by Czechoslovak paratroopers. The main objective of the operation was to assassinate the acting Reich protector, Reinhard Heydrich. The shrapnel from one of the paratroopers’ grenades hit Heydrich but did not kill him. He died eight days later from his wounds.
After almost an hour in the museum, the final room is reached, taking visitors into the modern era, focusing on trams, floods, the fall of communism, cinema Prague trips and view and make plans.
In 1989, a peaceful demonstration was held in the city for the first time in 50 years. The significant day opened the doors towards the quick and non-violent transition to freedom of speech, open conversation and the end of communist rule.
Other fascinating topics covered at the museum included the tradition of glassmaking that has been popular in Czech lands for more than 1,000 years and which has gained a worldwide recognition for its top-notch quality and diversity of techniques and styles.
Finally, 90s fashion was a big hit in Prague, which saw a fashion revolution and a desire to stand out, for a population suddenly enjoying no restrictions who wore styles and accessories simply because they could.
Denim became the basis of every wardrobe with some people dressed in it from head to toe. Extravagant hairstyles were also popular with the transformation of highlights, middle parts, crumpling, gelling, colourful hair clips, rubber bands and hairpins, as well as the mullet style.
The 90s also saw Czechoslovakia’s door opened to the world, bringing unprecedented opportunities and the country experienced a boom in music, games, films, information accessibility and pornography.
