Ensuring the operation of the National Museum buildings

The year 2019 was very important for the National Museum, one could say a turning point. After several years of reconstruction of the Historical Building, it was opened to visitors in its full beauty and a successful trial operation took place. This renovated building brought new challenges for the operational section, which often take place a little behind the curtain or are not perceived by the visitor at all. 

In the renovated building there is a completely new, highly modern security system, a new system of air conditioning, lighting and many other systems, which today are centrally controlled from the security and technical control room. These systems are technologically very advanced and it was important to learn to work with these systems during the first year of operation, despite all the challenges that lay ahead. We gradually managed this phase successfully and we were able to focus on other activities which are important not only for visitors, and are not as visible as long as they work, such as the overall maintenance of buildings. These activities are provided by the operations department in all buildings of the National Museum, both in Prague and outside Prague. These are dozens of buildings, not only open to visitors, but also large depository complexes in Terezín and Horní Počernice.

When building the exhibitions in the Historical Building, the operations department works closely with all components of the National Museum so that the visitors can orient themselves well in such a large and complex building as the Historical Building certainly is. Considerable effort was devoted to the creation of visitor routes and the smooth orientation of visitors around the building.

Furthermore, last year we managed to put into operation and open an entrance adapted to visitors with special needs. The entrance is located in the New Building of the National Museum and we hope that it will serve everyone for whom it is intended.

Another, completely exceptional act was the opening of the connecting corridor between the Historical and New buildings of the National Museum. This is a completely unique act, which completely changed the operational characteristics of the buildings located at the upper end of Wenceslas Square. Suddenly, visitors, as well as employees, had a previously unsuspected opportunity to walk between the two buildings with dry feet. This has fundamentally changed all operational characteristics and visitor comfort.

Last but not least, we can boast huge interest of visitors not only in the Museum Complex on Wenceslas Square, but also in other buildings. Almost 900,000 visitors came to the complex itself, and more than 150,000 to other buildings. So we can boast more than a million visitors in a given year. This in itself shows that we are an attractive and visitor-successful museum.

However, we were also successful in commercial space rentals. Specific numbers are given in the relevant table, but it can be clearly stated that the reconstructed Historical Building has become a very popular meeting place for various professions and companies. The operations department also ensures that all these events take place to the complete satisfaction of our customers.