Museum of Chodsko

The Chodsko Museum is the oldest museum in Domažlice. The impetus for its establishment came from a meeting of the Domažlice City Council on August 28, 1883.

From the very beginning, the museum was divided into historical, scientific and industrial parts. It also included a library and the city archive. The museum was initially focused only on the equipment of the burgher household at that time; rural culture and way of life were represented by a collection of lace and embroidery. This trend changed only after the Czechoslovak Ethnographic Exhibition held in 1895. Preparatory work for this exhibition stimulated the organization of landscape exhibitions in individual regions; the Domažlice exhibition took place in 1893 and spurred the interest in folk costumes and folk culture.

In May 1889, a museum company was established and the collections were transferred from the municipality administration to its property. Only the conditions of membership have been preserved from the company’s articles of association. The collections were returned to the town in 1910. The village created a ten-member board of trustees, headed by an administrator who was responsible for the museum’s activities. At the same time, the library’s lending rules were set and the municipality committed to an annual financial contribution.

The Domažlice Museum, as well as most of the town’s museums founded at this time, faced the problem of storing collections. Their location in the Augustinian monastery made it impossible to make it accessible to the public; the turning point in museum activities came at Easter 1931, when the museum moved to Chodský Castle.

In the following two years, the agricultural collection was made available. The “Chodská svatba” (Chodsko´s wedding) installed in 1935 together with the lapidary created in the courtyard of the castle aroused a great response from the public.

With the increase in collection items, the museum’s exposition also developed. It was divided into several sections:

1. department of prehistoric archeology, collection of mineralogical-geological, collection of coins and medals
2. ecclesiastical and war memorials

III. monuments of crafts and trade

1. prominent natives of Domažlice, examples of urban civilization
2. Hall of Jaroslav Vrchlický
3. bourgeois hall

VII. Domažlice town hall

VIII. ethnographic department

For more information about the Pilsen Region, from which this museum comes, click here and here.