Prague has a ridiculous number of museums, including ones dedicated to coffee, Lego, miniatures, and historical chamber pots and toilets! These were the four that I enjoyed the most though (in order).
The Naprstek Museum was one of the best ethnographic museums I’ve been to, and I’ve been to quite a few over the years. It had a fascinating collection, which was well presented even if there wasn’t a huge amount of commentary on the items themselves. Context was given to the civilisations the objects had come from, and good use of simple backgrounds in the rooms provided atmosphere. There were three floors covering North America, South America, and the Pacific.
The North America floor was the smallest, but the American Indian items and presentation were better to me than the those I’d seen in the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC.
The South America floor was the largest, with wonderful artefacts from Amazonian tribes, the Inca, the Mapuche, and others, including colourful headpieces and incredible pottery.
The top floor was dedicated to the Pacific, closest to my heart, though their New Zealand geography was a bit dodgy. There were many items from Papua New Guinea, which I visited a few months ago, bringing back good memories.
The National Technical Museum was way more exciting than it’s name may suggest, as long as you have an interest in all things mechanical – planes, bicycles, cars, motorbikes, trains, clocks and cameras. The central hall concept is done in many places, but few as well as here, with plenty of commentary in English, and a wonderful collection.
The Apple Museum was quite random to find in Prague, but was very well done, with nearly 500 items covering the history of Steve Jobs, Apple and NeXT, with useful commentary provided on your mobile phone.
Finally while the Czech Museum of Music couldn’t match the character of the Esfahan Music Museum or technology of the Musical Instruments Museum In Brussels, it did have many unusual instruments displayed well, and a fun temporary exhibition on fairytales, with these spooky wooden figures.
