The reopened Archdiocesan Museum will now offer access to all arms of the cloister and a multimedia exhibition

NEWS: 21 04 2023

After two years of reconstruction, the Archdiocesan Museum Olomouc, including the Romanesque palace of Bishop Zdík, opens on Monday 24 April 2023. The opening ceremony will take place at 5 pm in the St. Wenceslas Cathedral. Due to the expected great interest of the public, the museum will be open on this day from 16.00 to 20.30.

Visitors can expect great news. For the first time in modern history, all four arms of the Gothic cloister with medieval wall paintings will be open. "Similarly, one floor up, a new walkway over the arches of the ambyte will allow you to pass not only the remains of Bishop Zdíks former palace with its richly decorated Romanesque windows, but the entire gallery. In addition, after the construction modifications in the attic of the former chapter deanery, a space for a new permanent exhibition has been created, which will bring the cultural and historical development of the Svatováclavský vrchší (St. Wenceslas Hill) closer," says Ondřej Zatloukal, director of the Olomouc Museum of Art.

All the construction changes are part of the project of the owner of the building, the Metropolitan Chapter of St. Wenceslas in Olomouc, funded by the Integrated Operational Programme 2014-2020 through the ITI Olomouc Agglomeration. 

The user comfort was then increased by more than 35 million crowns, which the Museum of Art received from the IROP project for the use of the collections, their restoration and accessibility in the new exhibition and other parts of the Archdiocesan Museum. The Picture Gallery and the Gallery received more modern lighting. The artworks will benefit from more efficient air conditioning and security equipment. 

The Archdiocesan Museum enters the season with a new visual identity, which has been used since last year by the operator of this space - the Olomouc Museum of Art. The entire graphics, navigation system and accompanying printed materials for exhibitions have been changed. "We are also preparing an updated edition of the popular guide to the Archdiocesan Museum, which will be supplemented with a new exhibition and the latest results of historical research," says Miroslav Kindl, head of the Archdiocesan Museum.

YOU ARE HERE

New permanent exhibition Here you are. Thanks to the above-mentioned IROP project, Svatováclavské návrší in the Changes of Centuries will also largely belong to digital media. 

Visitors will thus be able to take a virtual tour of the local hill in prehistoric, medieval and modern times. "Already during the development activities, we thought mainly about making people have fun and experience something unusual. On the other hand, it was important to be accurate, to have enough information and background information, which we received thanks to close cooperation with historians," explains Vojtěch Buday from Tasty Air, a company that creates virtual and augmented reality. 

The presentation also includes a comic book by Martin Šinkovský and Petr Novák (Silence 762), in which the main character becomes a time traveller. "Thanks to this, he will get to know Svatováclav Hill across historical stages, all the way back to prehistoric times. In each period, he will meet various local historical figures and experience an event that took place there. With these stories, we are aiming especially at younger visitors so that they can better understand the importance and significance of this area," says Miroslav Kindl, the author of the new exhibition. 

Visitors will also find a number of interesting exhibits - archaeological finds, fragments of stonework and an artistic facsimile of the rare Olomouc horology from the first half of the 12th century, which was commissioned by Bishop Jindřich Zdík (c. 1083-1150) for the Olomouc chapter of St. Wenceslas. The illuminated manuscript includes 161 sheets of parchment with texts for daily prayers. The codex became a prize of the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War and is still preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm.  

IN GLORY AND PRAISE

The permanent exhibition To Glory and Praise remains at the heart of the Archdiocesan Museums tour. One thousand years of spiritual culture in Moravia, with all the attractions that have been presented so far - the diamond and emerald-studded monstrance of the Golden Sun of Moravia, the rare Gothic sculptures of the Sternberg Madonna or the Krivak Pieta, the painting of the Madonna with a Veil by Sebastian del Piombo and, of course, the gilded carriage of Cardinal Troyer.   

The Picture Gallery of the Bishops and Archbishops of Olomouc, the Ivory Cabinet and part of the Baroque exhibition have been transformed. Several precious works were newly restored, for example, the large canvas by Karel Škréta St. Wenceslas Gives the Cutting Down of Pagan Idols and the Building of Christian Temples from 1641 or the late Mannerist painting Christ on Mount Olivet by the Venetian painter Francesco Bassano from after 1585. Among the completely new exhibits that have been loaned to the museum, we would like to highlight the hitherto almost unknown statue of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary from Otaslavice by the important Moravian Baroque sculptor Jiří Antonín Heinz. In the Baroque halls of the first floor of the former chapter deanery, people will notice the restored original wooden floors.

Thanks to the ITI project, the St. Wenceslas Cathedral also offers news. "Visitors can see the reconstructed Baroque sanctuary in the Chapel of St. Stanislaus and, in the near future, the completely restored Stations of the Cross by sculptor Karel Stádník. Thanks to the Metropolitan Chapters project, the entire area of St. Wenceslas Hill has also gained much missing social facilities for visitors," adds project manager Dominika Doláková.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)