Army Museum on Vítkov is awaiting a hundred million crown reconstruction

photo: Military Historical Institute Prague

Prague - The historic building of the army museum of the Military Historical Institute (VHÚ) in Prague's Žižkov district will finally undergo repairs after years of postponements. The reconstruction is expected to begin later this year, with the museum and its exhibition expected to receive a new look within three years. This was announced to ČTK by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, Jan Pejšek. The repair will cost up to 600 million crowns. A new entrance will be created, and exhibition spaces will be doubled.

The complex of buildings at the foot of Vítkov was built in the late 1920s. The VHÚ has been warning for several years about the necessity of repairs. Originally, it was anticipated that the refurbished museum could open in 2014 to mark the centenary of the start of World War I. However, plans have been delayed.

The Ministry of Defense's leadership now takes the repairs into account, and funds for them are included in this year's budget. "The Žižkov army museum desperately needs reconstruction. Work will begin this autumn, and it will be completed in 2020," said Defense Minister Martin Stropnický (ANO) to ČTK.

According to Pejšek, the project documentation for the future form of the Army Museum Žižkov was completed last year, and a building permit was issued at the end of the year. The museum will undergo some fundamental changes. The courtyard will be covered, allowing the VHÚ to gain additional exhibition space, and the visitor entrance will lead into the museum's basement. The changes will also concern the individual exhibitions. The VHÚ already has precise plans for the placement of individual exhibition items.

"Thanks to the planned construction modifications, the existing exhibition area of the Žižkov museum will be doubled, which will subsequently house exhibitions dedicated to the period from prehistory to the present," noted VHÚ director Aleš Knížek. The VHÚ will thus have the opportunity to once again display hundreds of collection items that people could see in the Schwarzenberg Palace in Hradčany until 2002.

The VHÚ management expects that the museum will operate in its current form until the end of this year's summer holidays. After that, it will be entirely evacuated, and the exhibits will be moved to depots in Lešany. Everything from the Žižkov museum's depots has already been relocated there.

The reopening is expected to be achieved by October 2020, when the VHÚ wants to celebrate its 100th anniversary. In 1920, the predecessor of the VHÚ, the Resistance Memorial, became an independent institution.

The mission of the VHÚ is to collect both written and material memorials related to the history of the Czechoslovak and Czech armies and military affairs. It exhibits these items and simultaneously publishes historical works related to military history. In addition to the museum in Žižkov, it exhibits in the Aviation Museum in Kbely and the Military Technical Museum in Lešany, where it also has extensive depots.