An archeopark will be created in Dolní Věstonice for 96 million

Dolní Věstonice (Břeclavsko) - An archaeological park showcasing the era of mammoth hunters will begin construction between Dolní Věstonice and Pavlov in Břeclavsko by October. Visitors will find archaeological excavations and also the most valuable artifacts that scientists have managed to find in this area, said Petr Kubín, director of the Mikulov Regional Museum, to ČTK today.
    The construction of the exhibition will cost 96.5 million crowns. About 75% of the costs will be covered by EU grants, while the rest will be paid by the state. The permanent exhibition is expected to open in October 2015. It will remind that the Dolní Věstonice area is one of the most significant archaeological sites in the world for the Upper Paleolithic period.
    About 30,000 years ago, this site was inhabited by mammoth hunters so densely that scientists nicknamed it the Paleolithic New York. The most significant find is the Věstonická Venus, which is housed in the collections of the Moravian Museum in Brno.
    The new building will be mostly underground and will be covered with grass. "Visitors should feel when entering the underground that they are going back in time," Kubín said. The most interesting feature awaiting tourists will be the uncovered Paleolithic settlement. The exhibition will also include dioramas that illustrate the life of mammoth hunters.
    The creators of the exhibition anticipate that the archaeological park could attract around 40,000 tourists annually. From there, they will be able to head to nearby Dolní Věstonice, where the original archaeological museum is located. However, its spaces are too cramped, and it was not possible to expand the building, therefore a completely new exhibition will be created. The oldest history of humankind is also represented by the permanent exhibition Anthropos in Brno, which was established during the First Republic at the initiative of researcher Karel Absolon. It was his scientific team that discovered the Věstonická Venus.