The Silesian Museum ( cs, Slezské zemské muzeum) in
Opava
Opava (; german: Troppau, pl, Opawa) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 55,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Opava (river), Opava. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia. It was a histori ...
is the oldest and the third largest museum in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
. The museum also manages other heritage sites.
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History
The main museum was founded on 1 May 1814 by three people, Professor Faustin Ens, Franz Mückusch von Buchberg Franz may refer to:
People
* Franz (given name)
* Franz (surname)
Places
* Franz (crater), a lunar crater
* Franz, Ontario, a railway junction and unorganized town in Canada
* Franz Lake, in the state of Washington, United States – see Fran ...
and the mayor of Opava Johann Joseph Schößler
Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...
. The museum was placed into a building that was a grammar school and the new collection was known as the ''Museum Gymnazijni''. During the nineteenth century three more museums were founded in the town. After the first world war the Czechoslovak state created a ''Silesian Museum'' and an Agricultural Museum was started in 1924 and a ''Leigionnaires Museum'' dedicated to the spirit of resistance.
This multitude of museums was partially simplified in 1939 when the ''Museum Gymnazijni'' and the ''Silesian Museum'' were merged as the ''Reichsgaumuseum''. At the end of the war this museum's collections gained artefacts from nearby buildings and the confiscated property of German people. In 1949 the ''Reichsgaumuseum'' was given its last name change when it became this ''Silesian Museum''.[
The museum's current authority comes from a document dated 27 December 2000.
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Description
Owl exhibition
The museum is the third largest museum in the Czech Republic and it has 2,400,000 artefacts.[Silesian Museum]
in English, retrieved 19 August 2014 The museum cares for a number exhibits which are distributed at different locations. The museum is in charge of an arboretum, a large war memorial, a preserved fortification and a poet's birthplace.
The war memorial
The war memorial commemorates a large battle of the World War II between Nazi Germany and Russia and its allies. 13,000 names are recorded there in the village of Hrabyně
Hrabyně (german: Hrabin) is a municipality and village in Opava District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,100 inhabitants.
Administrative parts
The village of Josefovice is an administrative part of Hrabyně.
...
. These are not just the names of soldiers but also of civilians from Silesia and North Moravia lost during the war.
The Hlučín-Darkovičky Czechoslovak Fortification Complex
The complex, located in Hlučín
Hlučín (; german: Hultschin; pl, Hulczyn) is a town in Opava District the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 14,000 inhabitants. It was the centre of the historic Hlučín Region. The historic town centre is well preser ...
, is a series of five different forfications that were designed to sit on the Czech border during the first half of the twentieth century. They are an important example of the defences availables during the World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. These fortifications have been under the management of the Silesian museum since 1992.
The Petr Bezruč memorial
This exhibition is based at the Czech poet Petr Bezruč
Petr Bezruč () was the pseudonym of Vladimír Vašek (; 15 September 1867 – 17 February 1958), a Czech poet and short story writer who was associated with the region of Austrian Silesia.
His most notable work is ''Silesian Songs,'' a coll ...
's birthplace. Bezruc published poetry including ''Silesian Songs''. The building where he was born was lost to the damage of the second world war but another building has been built at that site in 1956 and the museum also owns his holiday chalet in Ostravice
Ostravice (german: Ostrawitz, pl, Ostrawica) is a municipality and village in Frýdek-Místek District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,400 inhabitants.
Geography
Ostravice is located about south of Frýdek- ...
.
The Nový Dvůr Arboretum
The Nový Dvůr Arboretum in Stěbořice is part of the museam and it includes 7,000 different species from five continents which are spread over 23 hectares.[Nový Dvůr Arboretum]
szm.cz, in English, retrieved 19 August 2014 There are also 200 square metres of greenhouse space which although small includes both tropical and sub-tropical climates. These extend the range of plants of the arboretum to also include trees and plants that require the climates of Africa, Asia, America and Australasia.[
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References
{{authority control
Museums in the Czech Republic
1814 establishments in Europe
Upper Silesia