The digital version of Langweil's model of Prague will be available in April

Prague - Interested parties will be able to view a six-minute three-dimensional projection of the digitized version of Langweil's model of Prague at the Museum of the Capital City of Prague in April. According to Mayor Pavel Bém (ODS), the city spent 14.5 million crowns on its creation. Jiří Žára, head of the Department of Computer Graphics at CTU, stated that the work was exceptionally difficult, and the result represents a unique piece on a global scale.
Antonín Langweil worked as a library attendant at the university library in Klementinum, and from 1826 to 1837, he created a paper model of Prague as it was at the time, covering about 20 square meters. He thus captured in detail the appearance of the Old Town, Lesser Town without Petřín, and Hradčany with Prague Castle.
The miniature model of Prague, at a scale of approximately 1:480, has more than 2,500 numbered buildings, 960 of which no longer exist. The digital model includes 13,400 roofs, 9,100 chimneys, and 5,400 shrubs and trees; the facades of the houses feature not only architectural and decorative details such as house signs, frescoes, or sundials but also crumbling walls, broken windows, and climbing plants on the walls. The model holds not only artistic value but also significance for heritage conservationists, architects, and historians.
About 200 experts worked for over two years to create the computer three-dimensional reconstruction of the model. A special robot captured more than 244,000 detailed photographs; 48 computers and 20 terabytes of disk space were needed for the digitization. Some details are so precise that current technology could not handle them. "I already have many impulses from professionals and scientists expressing their excitement at being able to familiarize themselves with it," Žára said.
Touch screens will be installed at the model exhibit in the city museum by February, allowing visitors to interactively view the model. A specialized research station is also being prepared for the second quarter of this year, which will allow for the viewing of selected parts of the digitized model in the highest quality.
According to the project's website www.langweil.cz, Antonín Langweil was born in Postoloprty in 1791 in the family of a brewer from the Schwarzenberg brewery. In 1819, he opened the first lithographic workshop in Bohemia in Prague's Old Town Square, but he struggled and soon closed it. He served as a library attendant in Klementinum from 1822. He worked on the unfinished model of Prague from 1826 until his death in 1837.
After Langweil's death, the model, which was exhibited five times during his lifetime, was sold by his wife for a symbolic price to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, who donated it to the Patriotic Museum (now the National Museum). In 1954, it was taken over by the Museum of the Capital City of Prague, and it has been accessible to the public since 1961.
According to Zuzana Strnadová, director of the city museum, the model should be exhibited in the future in a new building in Florenc, which is planned for construction between 2011 and 2013.