National Museum in Prague: what to see

You can't miss it. Wenceslas Square climbs like a long boulevard, and at the top sits a neo-Renaissance pile with a dome, built to tell the world that the Czechs were a nation to be taken seriously. It still does that rather well.

A building with something to say

The museum opened in 1891 in a building designed by Josef Schulz. It grew out of a society that had been collecting natural specimens and historical objects since the early nineteenth century, and the architecture was meant to match the ambition. The staircase, the marble and the painted ceilings are as much part of the visit as anything in a glass case.

The building closed for a long reconstruction in 2011 and reopened in 2018, the centenary of Czechoslovakia. If an older review complains about scaffolding, ignore it.

The Pantheon

Climb the staircase and you reach the Pantheon, a domed hall lined with busts and statues of Czech scientists, writers and artists. Look up at the ceiling paintings, which tell the national story in allegory. Ten minutes standing here explains the whole building.

The exhibitions change, so treat this as a sketch rather than a checklist. Natural history is one strand: minerals, fossils, skeletons. Czech history and archaeology are the other. For what is on now, the official site is the only reliable guide.

The bullet marks

Look at the outer walls and you'll see small pockmarks in the stone. They date from the night of the Warsaw Pact invasion in August 1968, when the building was caught in the shooting. They were left unpatched on purpose, and they are a quiet way into the story of the Prague Spring.

In the pavement in front, a small memorial marks the spot where Jan Palach set himself on fire in January 1969 to protest against the occupation. People still leave flowers. Stop for a moment. This is a place of mourning, not a photo backdrop.

The New Building next door

The second building began life as the Federal Assembly of Czechoslovakia. After 1989 it had several uses, among them the New Building, which housed Radio Free Europe until 2009 and is now part of the museum. An underground link joins the two buildings, so you can cross without dodging the traffic on the busy road.

It is a good piece of its period, and our guide to communist-era architecture in Prague says more about why. The exhibitions here have a different flavour from the old building, so check what is on before you commit.

Practical notes

Tickets are sold at the museum and online. The National Museum also runs other sites around the city, including the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American cultures and the Czech Museum of Music, each with its own visiting details. The official site shows what a combined ticket covers.

This is a very busy stretch of road. Come on a weekday morning, and finish at the top of the square looking downhill rather than starting at the bottom and walking up with the crowd.

Do this today

Take the metro to Muzeum, find the bullet marks and Palach's memorial outside, then go in and climb to the Pantheon. If you only have an hour, that is the visit. For the rest of the day, our three days in Prague itinerary has ideas.