Second largest and oldest museum
in the Czech Republic, was founded in July 1817 by
a decree of Emperor Francis I. The museum's collections
include over 6 million objects, representing valuable
scientific material from the fields of literature,
music and theatre, geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology
and entomology.
In 1826 the Fingerhuts bought
the Prague building U Halánk? which at the time housed
a brewery and distillery. Within a matter of years
their older son Vojt?ch would make this buliding famous
literally throughout the world.
The exhibition presents over
200 historical puppets arranged into scenes for you
to see e.g. historical legends, a South Bohemian wedding,
water sprites (certainly living on the bottoms of
the Moldau river in ?eský Krumlov), including a drowned
man, robbers from the deep forests of Blanský les
and the Šumava mountains, doctor Faust, Punch and
devils, as well as the famous figures of Spejbl and
Hurvínek.
The Museum of Puppets was opened in 1972 in a renaissance
building called the Mydlar House. It was built by
a Chrudim burger - Matej Mydlar in 1573-1577 and a
little minaret-like tower was added later by his son
Daniel.
