About the organization

› About Us › About the organization

History and Present of the Museum in Most

The museum is currently located in the building of the former German real gymnasium. This architecturally significant structure, completed in 1913, served the gymnasium until 1945. After that, it housed a secondary industrial school until 1981. Since 1982, the building has belonged to the museum, which was ceremonially opened to the public after extensive reconstruction completed in 1996. The museum's focus is primarily regional, with its main collection and research area being the former district of Most and the surrounding districts.

Geomorphologically, the museum concentrates on three significant landscape units: the Ore Mountains, the western part of the Czech Central Highlands, and the Most Basin. The nature and history of these areas are covered by three natural science and three social science permanent exhibitions.

Under the museum's administration, the castle in Litvínov was also managed from 1964 to 2005, and from 2000 to 2013, the Memorial to the Victims of World War II in Most, located in the building of the former crematorium at the municipal cemetery.

History

Stadtmuseum Brüx

The history of the Most museum began in 1888 when, at the request of the town's mayor, a room was freed for collecting exhibits. City official Otto Scharf was tasked with caring for the donated items. The main interest was focused on the German part of the town's population, their history, local studies, and folklore. The museum existed de facto but did not engage in any other activities. Therefore, on January 2, 1894, the Society of Friends of the Museum in Most (Verein des Museumsfreunde Brüx) was established to coordinate the museum's activities. Exhibition spaces were obtained in a building on U Masných krámů street (later Švermovy) No. 187 (the former Piarist gymnasium). In 1938, during the occupation of the border regions, the competing Czech Podkrušnohorské Museum was dissolved, and its collections were transferred to the City Museum in Most. In 1944, during intense bombing of the Most region, the exhibits were moved to the cellars of the castle in Milešov, from where most of them returned after the war.

City Museum

In the first half of the 1950s, the museum was divided, leading to the establishment of two separate institutions: the City Museum in Most and the City Archive in Most.

District Museum

The year 1964 brought another merger, when the Litvínov museum joined the Most museum, creating the District Museum in Most. The museum remained located in the former Piarist gymnasium, while the natural science department found refuge in the building of the former Valdštejn castle in Litvínov. In 1965, the museum took over the collections from the dissolved museum in Hora Svaté Kateřiny. The demolition of Old Most due to brown coal mining necessitated the museum's relocation within the city twice, until it finally settled in the current building of the former German real gymnasium on Československé armády street No. 1360.

Regional Museum

After the administrative reform, the newly established Ústí Region became the founder (2003), and the museum was renamed.

Exhibitions

Rare specimens

Manuscripts

  • Marian Treatise by Ernst of Pardubice (2nd half of the 14th century)
  • Gradual of Jakub of Plzeň (1537–1544)
  • Book of Master Exams of the Most Tailors' Guild (from 1576 to the 1st half of the 19th century)
  • Bible printed in Nuremberg (1478) – the oldest incunabulum

Collection of Regional Literature

  • Sample book for the production of Ore Mountain toys from the dissolved toy factory in Horní Jiřetín (1870)

Library

The library of the Regional Museum in Most was established with the founding of the Society of Friends of the Museum in Most in 1888. Among the first donations were books that became the foundation of its collection. The library received 3,572 volumes from the castle in Třebívlice, donated by Baroness Ulrika von Levetzow. The library further enriched its collection with donations from prominent figures of the Most region, from dissolved and merged museums, and from the libraries of the Piarist and German real gymnasiums. Currently, the library owns around 40,000 volumes (3,600 in the collection part).

Natural Science

  • Geology of Northwest Bohemia
  • Nature of Northwest Bohemia (under reconstruction)

Social Science

  • Ulrika von Levetzow: Angel in the Glitter of Pearls (the last great love of J. W. Goethe)
  • From the Life of the Inhabitants of the Ore Mountains ("study repository")

Gallery of Fine Arts

  • Treasures of Fine Arts from Most (14th–16th century)