Archdiocesan Museum

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Olomouc

Free admission with ORC

Barrier-free destination

The Archdiocesan Museum is housed in the buildings of the chapter deanery and in the grounds of the Přemyslid Palace, a national cultural monument.

The Romanesque bishop's palace of Jindřich Zdík (Přemyslid Palace) and the Chapel of St. Barbara are also part of the tour route. The museum's permanent exhibition introduces visitors to the spiritual culture of the Olomouc Archdiocese. The picture gallery contains top-quality paintings collected by the bishops of Olomouc since the 16th century. The building also includes the concert hall "Mozarteum", named in memory of the famous composer W. A. Mozart's stay here. The museum also offers 25 audio guide headphones in Czech, English, German and Polish.

PERMANENT EXHIBITORS

Masonic Bishop's PalaceThis is the most important palace-type building monument in the Czech lands. According to research, the palace was built just before the middle of the 12th century. Although only the northern and western perimeter walls of the building have survived, the quality of the sculptural decoration of the combined two- and three-part Romanesque windows testifies to the craftsmanship and artistic skill of the builders. Around the middle of the 14th century, the Romanesque cloister was demolished and replaced by a new ambo in the High Gothic style. The walls of the cloister preserve late Gothic and early Renaissance wall paintings from the first quarter of the 16th century, which represent New Testament biblical scenes. Two chapels were gradually added to the Gothic cloister: the Chapel of St. Anne (rebuilt in the 17th century) on the west side in the first half of the 14th century and the Chapel of St. John the Baptist on the north side in the first half of the 15th century. There is an exhibition of fragments of the architectural and sculptural decoration of the Basilica of St. For glory and praise - 1000 years of spiritual culture in Moravia IIThe permanent exhibition of the Archdiocesan Museum is organized into two basic sections, the first of which, entitled Art of the Olomouc Diocese, is chronologically arranged and includes all artistic disciplines (architectural fragments, painting, sculpture, artistic crafts - goldsmithing and textiles, etc.The next section of the exhibition, entitled The Collecting of the Bishops of Olomouc, presents a collection of paintings including important works of Italian, Dutch and Central European provenance. The origins of the collection date back to the 17th century and constitute one of the finest Central European collections of old paintings.Another part of the archbishop's collection is indicated by the collections of ivory carvings and numismatic relics. The exhibition is complemented by further thematic units. Special areas of the Textile Cabinet and especially the Vault Jewellery Room present a unique selection of liturgical textiles and goldsmith's objects from the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods. The archaeological findings underline the nearly six thousand years of settlement in Olomouc and the importance of the site in the Great Moravian period.The institution of the archbishopric itself and the personalities of individual bishops and archbishops are also presented. A special place is also given to important chapters in the musical history of the diocese, with an emphasis on the patronage of the bishops and archbishops of Olomouc.The space of St. Barbara's Chapel introduces, through liturgical objects, the principles of liturgical practice and its symbolic language in the context of the church year.

Even children will be entertained during the tour of the basic circuit - there are various jigsaw puzzles, puzzles or large picture blocks. In the small children's corner they can find playful thematic worksheets or a special feature - a giant pencil.

News 2023 New exhibition - You are here. St.Wenceslas Hill in the changes of the centuries

You can expect a number of archaeological findings and works of art from the 5th millennium BC to the present day.Part of the exhibition belongs to new media and digital content - e.g. virtual visualization of the St.Wenceslas Hill area - in prehistoric, medieval and modern times, incl. You can also see a facsimile of the rare Olomouc horologium (also called the Olomouc Collector) from the first half of the 12th century, commissioned by Bishop Jindřich Zdík (c. 1083-1150). The illustrated manuscript includes a collection of liturgical texts on 161 sheets of parchment. The codex became a prize of the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War and is still preserved in the Royal Library in Stockholm. The exposition can be accompanied by a comic book by Martin Šinkovský and Petr Novák (Silence 762) - the story of a young climber who, by a series of circumstances, becomes a time traveller... (available for purchase at the ticket office)The exposition also includes an educational room with a virtual game console, where visitors will be able to try building the cathedral. Bishop Troyer's gilded carriage will be joined by a rich baroque harness on an artistic horse design to give visitors an idea of the cathedral.All four arms of the ground floor Gothic cloister with medieval wall paintings are newly accessible. You can also access the small landscaped Garden of Eden in the centre of the building. Almost the entire first floor with its original Romanesque windows is also accessible.

Tour information

Tours of the Archdiocesan Museum Olomouc are without a guide. There are descriptions in Czech and English in the exhibitions. In addition, an audio guide (web app at www.muo.cz or for mobile phones within the TourStories app) in Czech, English, Polish, German, Russian, Chinese and Korean can be used for the permanent exhibition To Glory and Praise and for the Zdík Palace.