MUZA ׀ North Bohemian Museum in Liberec
The North Bohemian Museum in Liberec was founded in 1873 as the oldest art and industrial museum in the Czech lands and the building itself was built in 1896-1898 according to the winning design of the Austrian court architect Friedrich Ohmann. The seat of the originally exclusively art-industrial museum was expanded in 1945 institutionally and in terms of exposition to include the formerly independent museum of local history and natural history. Today, in addition to a rich library, the North Bohemian Museum includes three collection departments - natural history, history (with archaeology) and art history. In 2018-2020, all the publicly accessible interiors and part of the original offices were modernised and converted into installed repositories for collection objects. The historic structural elements of the building have undergone sensitive repair and challenging restoration.
The museum currently houses several permanent exhibitions augmented by interactive elements that provide additional information on relevant issues in a playful way. The regional history exhibition Liberec Fragments presents the history of the city of Liberec, which is strongly connected with the glass and textile industry, through collection objects. The nature of the Jizera Mountains and the Frýdlant region is the subject of the permanent exhibition Touching the North, which includes generously conceived dioramas presenting animals and plants in their natural environment. The art-historical exhibition Beauty + Enjoyment introduces visitors to the development of artistic craftsmanship from ancient cultures to the present day. More than a thousand exhibited objects from the collections of glass, textiles, jewellery and many others are complemented by illustrative demonstrations of materials, crafts and techniques directly in the exhibition. Selected parts of the museum building are permanently dedicated to the promotion of contemporary Czech artists, designers and companies focusing on contemporary design and applied arts. A new part of the visitor service is the teaching studio, which is connected to the newly created FOG photo gallery. Thanks to the cooperation with Preciosa, Lasvit and Wranovsky, it has been possible to supplement the existing collection of historical lamps with contemporary chandeliers by renowned designers such as Rony Plesl, Jakub Berdych Karpelis and Bořek Šípek. The museum also manages the house of Jiří Harcuba with a historical grinding plant, located in Harrachov. The collection is based on the preserved workshop of a glass cutter and engraver in an authentic form from the end of the 19th century with original equipment and the ancestral heritage of Jiří Harcuba - the most important Czech engraver and medallist.
Crystal tower. From August 2022, the museum tower will house an artwork by brothers Jan and Ondřej Salanský - the 26-metre high glass ladder Climax Paradisi, which was created as part of the Crystal Valley project. Although it is made of glass, at first glance it looks as if it were made of stainless steel. It is made of technical glass that is silvered on the inside.
Single admission to the tower is 50 CZK (children under 6 years old can enter the tower for free).