After reconstruction, the Armádní Museum Žižkov will open, and people can come starting from October 28th.

Prague - After several years of reconstruction, the Army Museum in Žižkov, Prague, will be ceremonially opened today. Following today's ceremony attended by President Miloš Zeman, it will open to the public on October 28. Visitors will be offered a new exhibition covering the military history of Czech territory from settlement by the Slavs to the present day. The exhibition space has tripled compared to the past.

The museum's reconstruction was originally estimated to cost around 724 million crowns, but according to the findings of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ), additional work has increased the cost by 192 million crowns. According to the NKÚ, some of these costs stemmed from objective and unpredictable reasons, while additional work worth at least 28 million crowns resulted from errors in the project documentation.

The museum features a new entrance that leads underneath the original courtyard. In the basement, which has acquired a glass ceiling, there is a reception area from which visitors can access the exhibitions or take an elevator to the café. Access to the museum will also be possible from the bike path at the back of the building. In total, it offers over 5,000 square meters of exhibition space.

The exhibition is divided into seven main sections. Experts from the Military Historical Institute (VHÚ), which operates the museum, aimed for unique items from their collection to become the centerpiece. They distinguish themselves from some practices currently employed by museums that deviate from traditional concepts and replace the exhibition of artifacts with the use of audiovisual technologies.

The exhibition will showcase unique weapons from the medieval period and depict scenes from famous battles, including the Battle of Crécy in 1346, in which Czech King John of Luxembourg fell. Several parts of the exhibition are dedicated to World War I and the founding of Czechoslovakia, including a display of a front-line trench through which visitors can walk, as well as the interwar period. Extensive space is devoted to World War II and the battles on all fronts where Czechoslovak soldiers were deployed. This section also addresses the assassination of the Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich.