The National Museum

The Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American cultures in the Prague U Halánků House exhibits its ethnographic artifacts from non-European cultures collected by the famous Czech patriot and national awakener Vojtěch Náprstek in the 19th century.

Vojtěch Náprstek collected an immense number of objects that are nowadays a part of the museum, but only a small part is exhibited in this permanent exhibition of the National Museum. Náprstek founded originally the Czech Industrial Museum that became a center of Czech intelligentsia. It collected art and ethnographic objects that Náprstek received from his friends and travelers from all over the world. After Náprstek's death the museum turned into an ethnographic museum and in the 1950s its focus turned solely to non-European cultures. The permanent exhibition consists today of four main parts – America, dedicated to the original inhabitants of America, Cultures of Australia and Oceania, Nias – Island of Ancestors and Myths that focuses on the culture of this Indonesian island, and Vojta Náprstek, dedicated to the founder of the museum. The Náprstek Museum in Prague is open from Tuesday till Sunday between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. (on Wednesday from 9 a.m.).