History of the museum

Krkonoše Museum in Vrchlabí Throughout the Ages

Establishment of the association´s museum and the first years (1883–1901)

The Krkonoše Museum in Vrchlabí was founded by the Austrian Krkonoše Association, which sought to make the Krkonoše Mountains more accessible for tourists, but also to protect them and gain a deeper professional knowledge of them. At first, the Association´s Library was established for this purpose in 1881. Its administrator, the industrialist and natural scientist Viktor Cypers von Landrecy, was subsequently entrusted with the management of the museum, which the association established in 1883. Cypers did not start from scratch, however, as he was able to build on the natural history office of the Kablik family, which was active in Vrchlabí in the first half of the 19th century. Cypers’ own botanical, zoological and mineralogical collections formed the basis of the collections of the newly established Krkonoše Museum, the oldest in the region. The museum had a strong natural science focus at first, but the founders intended to build an institution focussed to a broader area. The cultural and historical exhibits were slow to come together; however, and once again a major donor from among the members of the association, the paper entrepreneur Prosper Piette de Rivage, played a crucial role. Unfortunately, the museum did not have its own premises and was located, together with the association library, in Cypers’ own house in Harta (Podhůří) near Vrchlabí. Publication activities had to be sufficient for the public presentation of the museum’s work until 1893, and then the town provided the association with exhibition space in the municipal school - but only until 1898. After that, the collections had to be repackaged and moved from place to place.

Town Museum and joint exhibitions (1892–1917)

In 1892, the managing teacher Emil Weiss organised an exhibition on the history of Vrchlabí. From the collected exhibits he founded a separate town museum, which together with the museum of the Krkonoše Association exhibited in the school building from 1893 to 1898. In 1901, poor health forced Viktor Cypers to resign as the administrator of the Krkonoše Museum. It was natural for the two institutions to join forces and Emil Weiss, the curator of the town museum, became the new curator of the association museum. However, the merger was only implemented only partially, in the person of the administrator, while the two institutions remained formally separate. In 1901, after three years of makeshift existence, both museums were given new premises by the town in the former hospital building behind the church. Here, a joint exhibition of two units - history and natural history - was created. In 1908 Weiss was replaced in the management of the museums by Gustav Brath, who was also the editor of the association’s almanac. However, even he failed to boost the collecting activities of the association's members and bring the museum out of a certain stagnation. The ideas were there, but the power to implement them was lacking. Even the release of association money for the eventual purchase of exhibits did not help. The war years also did not favour the development of the museums.

The Golden Years of the association´s museum (1917–1945)

The stagnating museum needed a major boost to revive its activities. This came in the form of a staff change in 1917. The new forces were teachers of the Vrchlabí Grammar School. Dr. Karl Wilhelm Fischer became the library manager and Dr. Karl Schneider the museum manager. Although Schneider was originally a geologist, the focus of his professional work was in the social sciences. His drive, consistency and diligence brought the museum from the periphery of the association's activities and made it the showcase of the Krkonoše Association. However, this was not his main goal. He intended to make the Krkonoše Museum in Vrchlabí (also called Giant Mountains Museum) a professional and methodological base for the national history work of the entire German community in North-East Bohemia. The intensive, well thought-out and targeted collection work was accompanied by a rich publishing and editorial activity at a decent professional level, far exceeding the then common national history publication. Finally in 1920, the two museums were formally merged, but even the 10 rooms in the former hospital became soon insufficient for the museum's growing exhibition and background facilities. However, efforts to build a new building of their own came to nothing and the premises problems were solved only in 1941 by taking a part of the building of the Augustinian Monastery. The ongoing war; however, slowed down work on the new premises and instead of completing the intended exhibitions, the collection objects were stored in crates for possible evacuation.

Nationalised and restored museum (1945–1966)

The end of the Second World War brought about a fundamental change. The German Krkonoše Association was dissolved and the state entrusted the administration of its property, including the museum, to the Czechoslovak Tourist Club. Jindřich Ambrož, the Jilemnice conservator of monuments and nature preservation, was in charge of taking over the museum, and he proposed the national history journalist Emil Flégl as the new administrator. In 1946 the museum was taken over by the district national committee and it became a district museum. In 1954 the municipal museum in Hostinné was added as a branch. Since 1952 the museum also served as a district archive. From the beginning, it was faced with a number of tasks for which it was neither staffed nor equipped. A lot of work was involved in securing and sorting out the property confiscated from Germans. Although the collections grew considerably, proper record-keeping was beyond the museum’s capabilities. Exhibition activities initially took place outside the museum building. The permanent exhibition was gradually made accessible and completed in 1958 with the opening of the Krkonoše Picture Gallery. In his research efforts, Flégl focused mainly on history of the labour movement; that was why they somewhat surprisingly gained their place in the exhibition only in 1960. Despite the poor staffing, natural sciences were not neglected in this period either. The museum had a good taxidermist. Flégl himself founded and led an active ornithological club. Initial publication activity in this period was limited to national history journalism in a decent way, which, due to the current tendencies, transformed into rather ideological agitation. In 1960, the Vrchlabí District was dissolved and the Town’s National Committee became the new founder of the museum. This only deepened the financial difficulties and the situation of the museum became unbearable in the long term. The condition of the monastery building in particular was in a state of disrepair.

New propsperity under the Krkonoše National Park Administration (1966–1994)

Rescue for the collapsing Krkonoše Museum came in 1966, when it came under the management of the Krkonoše National Park Administration (KRNAP). However, the change did not come immediately in all respects. The state of disrepair of the building led to the closure of the museum to the public in 1967. In the same year; however, systematic care of the collections began. From 1968 onwards, the former director Flégl devoted himself more to the notorious political work, and the new leading figure became Ing. Josef Fanta, who, from the position of deputy director of the Krkonoše National Park Administration and for a time also head of the museum, began to transform the museum into a natural science documentation and scientific workplace of the national park. The started trend did not change even after the ousting of Ing. Fanta. Another driving force became the new director of the Krkonoše National Park Administration, Ing. Jiří Svoboda, who decided to include the Krkonoše Museum in his generously designed plans for the development of the national park´s activities. In 1976, a general concept for the museum was drawn up and three historic houses on Náměstí Míru were purchased. Although originally intended for demolition, they were reconstructed and opened to the public in 1981 as additional exhibition space. The reconstruction of the main building was also nearing completion in the late 1970s. For the first time ever, the museum’s staff and depositories were properly equipped. At the same time, work began on the exceptional audiovisual ecological exhibition–Stone and Life–designed by Prof. Jan Jeník and the museum botanist Jan Štursa. The exhibition was opened in 1984. In the meantime, within the KRNAP (Krkonoše Mountains National Park Administration), the Museum in Jilemnice was added to the Krkonoše Museum in 1979 as well as the Memorial to Lost Patriots in Paseky nad Jizerou in 1980. The museum staff also developed permanent exhibitions in the mining site Obří Důl (1982) and in the community of Rokytnice nad Jizerou (1985). With the opening of the museum to the public in 1984, an organizational change took place and the museum got its own director again - Ing. Petr Štěpánek.

Although the period of the 1970s and 1980s was marked by the oppressive atmosphere of normalisation, it also represented the time of greatest personal and material expansion of the Krkonoše Museum, from which it still thrives even now in a certain sense.

To the present time (from 1994 till now)

After 1989, the ideological supervision ceased and museum professionals were given more freedom for their work. However, the work continued in a similar way as before. The year 1994 was a turning point, when the Krkonoše National Park Administration took over the Krkonoše Forests and some of the employees of the three forestry plants concerned. The enterprise subsequently underwent a series of restructuring processes, which also affected the museum. In particular, the era of the museum as a centre of scientific activity in the field of natural sciences came to an end. Some of the natural scientists moved to other departments, others left the institution altogether. Today, there is only one person left from the formerly independent natural science department in the museum to deal with all the issues. Nevertheless, at the turn of the millennium, natural science research was still being conducted at the museum – such as the continuing ornithology and ant research by Dr. Miles, or geobotany and avalanche studies by Dr. Kociánová. A completely new project appeared led by Dr. Materna, devoted to ticks and springtails. The Department of Social Sciences was less affected by the changes. In 1995, M. Bartoš, a longtime museum historian and later also its director, completed the long-awaited historical exposition called People and Mountains. Under the leadership of his successor, ethnographer PhDr. J. Sojková, the exhibition activities grew to unprecedented proportions, and the era of European projects began, which fully developed under the director Mgr. O. Hájková. These projects financed, among other things, the completion of the fourth house on Náměstí Míru as well as a new exhibition opened there in 2010. These projects have a significant impact on the direction of the museum’s activities also in the following era under the leadership of Blanka Zázvorková. The construction of a new modern depository with conservation workshops in Hořejší Vrchlabí in 2021 is essential in this respect for the long-term improvement of the care of collection objects. Compared to the previous period, the publishing activities of the museum staff have also increased significantly. They cooperate on a number of projects not only with colleagues from the Krkonoše National Park Administration, but also from universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

However, the museum is never a finished product and is still facing other challenges brought by the changing times.