Příbram II - Svatá Hora, Holy Mountain Museum Back

Cloister Church

Information

There has been a museum on the Holy Mountain since the beginning of the 20th century. Its exhibits were however largely stolen during the Communist era, and today we can find them for example in various antique shops or in private collections. The new Holy Mountain Museum (Svatohorské museum), which sought to build on the activities of the original institution, was built in 2002 in the place of a former warehouse. In addition to the permanent exhibitions, there are other occasional ones. One of the most popular is the traditional Christmas exhibition of nativity scenes which is visited by several thousand people every year. We also exhibit some rare items on the occasion of the Night of Churches. The museum also offers a guide service in several world languages which will allow those interested to get acquainted with the entire area of the pilgrimage site.

In 2015, the entire Holy Mountain area underwent a demanding reconstruction thanks to which our offer has been enriched. In addition to the possibility of a guided tour, one can now visit experience workshops, lecture rooms, but also a new museum below the level of the store. Thanks to the received grant, you can thus get to know new spaces and admire this unique Baroque gem in the heart of the Czech Republic.

The Holy Mountain Museum is not visible from the outside, because it is entirely located below the northern cloister. The tour begins and ends at a Baroque furnace which was surprisingly discovered on the ground floor of the monastery. The exhibition shows the history of the Holy Mountain. Individual events are listed on a timeline together with other important points in the history of the Czech lands. The timeline begins with the first mention of Christianity in Bohemia and ends with the recent events. Significant historical milestones are marked in red, and when walking around, they light up to draw visitors’ attention. For children, there is another timeline with symbols which go together with worksheets available at the cash-desk.

The first room is dedicated to the statue of the Virgin Mary of the Holy Mountain and the Jesuit order. There is a map of Jesuits’ activities in individual periods. On the screen you can see a presentation about the Jesuit order in Bohemia.
In the next room, visitors can watch a set of unique building plans from the 17th century and photographs depicting various events of the Holy Mountain. In the middle of the room there is a Baroque door which was found during the reconstruction and subsequently restored. The above-mentioned timeline begins behind this door.
After passing through the next door, you will find yourself in the main part of the museum which was originally planned as a crypt but never served this purpose. Here you can see a projection of the construction phases of the Holy Mountain and a set of four animated films about important events connected with this site.
The timeline continues to the left of the screen. Individual showcases are filled with objects that are thematically related to the time indicated on the timeline. In the lower part, there are objects that were found during archaeological research on the occasion of the last reconstruction in 2015. The upper parts of the showcases contain objects from the collections of the Holy Mountain. The visitors of the museum are also accompanied by the dresses of the Virgin Mary of the Holy Mountain, which relate chronologically both to the given period and to the exhibits below them, from the oldest preserved to modern "camouflages" created during a recent children’s competition.
The events from the history of the Holy Mountain are described on Corten steel panels and highlighted by photographs and iconography.
The largest showcase contains a model of the Holy Mountain in its supposed appearance after the completed construction in the 17th century. At the end of the room, one can see uncovered drainage channels and a children’s grave which dates older than the Baroque complex and belonged to the cemetery around the original chapel. They were both discovered during an archeological research and left in their original state of discovery.
When passing through the rooms, one can notice certain peculiarities on the bricks from which the building is made: some bear traces of the fingers of the workers who produced them and who also marked the individual production batches.
The exhibition continues downstairs to one of the wells where you will find information about the water supply of the Holy Mountain. The tour of the museum ends at the newly discovered and reconstructed Baroque furnace where one can admire plates on which hosts, and wafers used to be baked. After completing the tour, you can return to the store by stairs or elevator.

Open

daily
Opening hours May (only on weekends) 9.00 - 16.00 June 9.00 - 16.00 July - August 9.00 - 17.00 September 9.00 - 16.00 October (only on weekends) 9.00 - 16.00