East Bohemian Museum Hradec Králové

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The East Bohemian Museum in Hradec Králové
Detail of the main front
Figure at the main entrance
Roof structure
City fountain in front of the museum

The East Bohemian Museum Hradec Králové ( Czech Muzeum východních Čech , formerly Krajské muzeum východních Čech ) is a regional museum in Hradec Králové , which was designed by the architect Jan Kotěra . Since 1995 it has been a national cultural monument together with its collection .

history

The East Bohemian Museum was founded in 1880. An exhibition in 1879 provided the decisive impetus for its establishment . The city ​​bought numerous contemporary images, objects and objects in the collection from their exhibition fund, which came from the region around Hradec Králové ( Königgrätz ). They formed the basis of the future city museum. On August 6, 1880, the council approved the museum's statutes, which provided for a historical and an industrial section. In June of the following year, the city handed over the acquired holdings to the new museum and called on the population to participate in the development of the museum collection.

From the beginning , the museum had a library , which was also available to the city's citizens from 1896. It was the first institution of its kind in this city and with its funds it promoted the education of its citizens in a special way.

Museum structure

In addition to five administrative areas, the museum now (2009) has three scientific departments from these areas

  • archeology
  • History and
  • Natural sciences
  • and an outdoor area with the memorial for the Battle of Königgrätz , which took place in Chlum in 1866 ( Památník bitvy 1866 na Chlumu ).

Library

The museum library forms an important part of this facility and consists of its social and natural science sections. One of the particularly valuable scientific holdings was a collection of Königgrätzer prints (book printing mentioned here for the first time in 1565). The importance of this collection lay in the fact that it documented evidence of literary activity in the Bohemian national language , which was greatly decimated by activities during the Counter Reformation and in the period afterwards. I.a. This included the fanatical book storming of the Jesuit Antonín Koniáš (also: Anton Koniaß ), who in his 37 years of missionary work made great efforts to destroy printed works that he found inappropriate, including those in the Bohemian language . The theologian and philologist Josef Dobrovský criticized his work using the example of a now rare Königgrätz print, the "Clavis haeresim claudens et aperiens", which was published in Königgrätz in 1729 and 1749. In it Koniáš listed the works he had indexed.

A catalog was created for the library holdings around 1900. The museum received further book holdings through donations from citizens and schools.

During the German occupation in World War II , the library suffered major losses due to evacuation. After 1945 she received numerous new acquisitions through the confiscation and liquidation of other libraries from the area of ​​former associations, churches and private assets. However, the library shrank again due to political inventory revisions in the 1970s. The whereabouts of these losses have not yet been clarified.

Publications

The East Bohemian Museum is currently (2009) issuing four series of publications. These are:

  • Acta musei Reginaeahradecensis (publication of the results of natural history research)
  • Zpravodaj muzea (museum report)
  • Královéhradecko (Königgrätzer Land)
  • Historická fotografie (historical photography)

building

In order to implement the planned extensions in terms of planning and architecture, the city tour of Hradec Králové tried in the first decade of the 20th century to contact the then leading representatives of modern Czech architecture. New individual buildings and settlements were subsequently built. Jan Kotěra was one of the architects called . After his deliberations and plans, the museum was built in the Secession style . In this way, between 1909 and 1912, Kotěra created one of the most representative buildings in Hradec Králové with the construction of the East Bohemian Museum.

This functional building received additional architectural decorations through other contributors. Vojtěch Sucharda created the two female figures at the main entrance, labeled Arts and Crafts , in 1912 . They are composed of individual glazed ceramic elements and are around five meters high. The designed glass windows in the stairwell and foyer were created by František Kysela . The mosaic work on the second floor is the work of the painter Jiří Novák from 1931.

Normally fired and glazed bricks were used to design the facade, and their changing arrangement creates patterns. Individual covers are made of sandstone . The wall surfaces without facing brick have a horizontally structured structural plaster.

The roof area has a central tower with a flat cover and decorated skylight windows. Down to the eaves height of the main building wing, the central area shows a delicate and graduated line.

In front of the building is the city fountain, which is part of the overall concept and has an elaborate design, made of bronze and red-brown limestone . It consists of a double bronze bowl that rests on a limestone plinth and gives off its water via numerous outlets to a lower rectangular basin.

literature

  • Joachim Bahlcke , Winfried Eberhard, Miloslav Polívka (eds.): Handbook of historical places . Volume: Bohemia and Moravia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 329). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-32901-8 .
  • Joseph Dobrowsky : History of the Bohemian Language and Literature . Prague (Johann Gottfried Calve) 1792, pp. 206-207
  • Petr David / Vladimír Soukup / Jan Jakl / Marek Pavlík (translation by Oliver Groschner): Travel guide through Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia. Hradec Králové . Prague (Soukup & David publishing house) 1997, ISBN 80-86050-12-2
  • Jan Muk / Eva Šamánkova (ed.) And others: ABC kulturních památek Československa . Praha (Panorama) 1985
  • Emanuel Poche: Art Monuments in Czechoslovakia. Bohemia and Moravia . Leipzig (Edition Leipzig) 1986, ISBN 3-361-00071-8

Web links

Commons : East Bohemian Museum Hradec Králové  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 12 ′ 42.2 "  N , 15 ° 49 ′ 44.4"  E