The Archdiocesan Museum in Olomouc will reopen on April 24 after a two-year break

Olomouc - Archdiocesan Museum Olomouc on the St. Wenceslas Hill near the city center will reopen to visitors in April after nearly a two-year hiatus. It was closed due to renovations of the historical spaces of the former chapter deaconry and the Romanesque palace of Bishop Zdík, which together with the museum forms an attractive tourist complex. In addition to opening the space, the museum will also offer a new permanent exhibition "You Are Here," which, with the help of modern technologies, will present the history of the St. Wenceslas Hill from prehistory to the 21st century. This was stated today by the head of the Archdiocesan Museum Miroslav Kindl.

The museum will open on April 24. In addition to the original exhibition "To Glory and Praise/ A Thousand Years of Spiritual Culture in Moravia," which will be supplemented with new exhibits and changed, the main attraction will be a new exhibition located in the renovated attic of the chapter titled "You Are Here." "In this space, we are building a cultural-historical exhibition, offering visitors a view of how the St. Wenceslas Hill has developed over the millennium," said Kindl.

A large part of the exhibition will belong to new media and digital content. Visitors can look forward to screens with virtual gaming visualizations of the St. Wenceslas Hill during prehistory, the Middle Ages, and modern times. "Three beautiful bronze models of the hill will also be transported to Olomouc," added the museum director. The new exhibition will be complemented by a comic from the workshop of Martin Šinkovský and Petr Novák (Silence 762). It will narrate the story of a contemporary young man who sets out to climb the rock under St. Wenceslas Cathedral and, by coincidence, becomes a time traveler. The exhibition curators thus also target young visitors.

The exhibition in the attic is being created under the supervision of architect Jan Šépka, who was involved in the reconstruction of the chapter deaconry buildings for the needs of the Archdiocesan Museum more than ten years ago. The repair is part of a comprehensive reconstruction of the neighboring Zdík's Palace, one of the most valuable Romanesque monuments in Central Europe, which will cost approximately 50 million crowns. After the palace opens, previously closed areas will also be accessible to visitors; in the palace's ground floor, interested parties will be able to walk through all four arms of the Gothic cloister with medieval frescoes for the first time since its opening in 2006. One floor up, a new walkway will be available that will guide them along the entire gallery with original Romanesque windows.

The Archdiocesan Museum Olomouc was first opened to the public on June 1, 2006. It was established in 1998 in cooperation with the Olomouc Archbishopric as the first museum in the Czech Republic oriented towards spiritual culture. Since 2015, the museum has held the title of European Heritage, which it was the first to obtain in the Czech Republic.