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Czech Police Museum (Muzeum Policie ČR)

The museum is located on the grounds of the former Augustinian monastery on Karlova Street, which was founded in 1350 by Charles IV. Its natural dominant is the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Charles the Great. This museum objectively documents and presents the history, development and operation of security forces in the former Czechoslovakia since its inception to the present.

  • Arts & Entertainment
  • museum

Opening hours

    • January – December
    • Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
    • 10.00 – 17.00

Entrance fee

  • basic 100 CZK
  • reduced 50 CZK
  • family 200 CZK

Contacts

  • Czech Police Museum (Muzeum Policie ČR)
  • Ke Karlovu 1
  • 120 00 Praha 2 – Nové Město
  • +420974824855

Programme

Object history

Augustinian Monastery at Karlov, Police Museum

The Augustinian Monastery with a church was established by Charles IV in 1350. He named the church the Church of Virgin Mary and St. Charles the Great, to honour his patron St. Charles the Great whose name he was given at confirmation in France. Karlov was a frequently visited pilgrimage place. The monastery was built west from the church, near the ramparts. The Gothic monasterial buildings of the old abbey were changed in Baroque style in 1660 - 68 by Giovanni Battista Orsi. The new abbey with the abbot’s apartment and a home chapel of St. Charles of Boromej was built from 1716 on by František Maxmilián Kaňka. The painting of Virgin Mary of Karlov was repainted onto the chapel’s new altar by Jan Spitzer. There was a ceiling fresco of Virgin Mary’s Coronation in the monasterial library with an archive. One of the friars ordered the painting of eighteen large paintings of the holy apostles in the vaults of the ground-floor corridors. The monastery was damaged several times, either during the Hussite storms, or during the Saxon army invasion, or during Swedish siege in 1648, and again during the Prussian siege. After World War II, while removing the plaster from the Southern facade, the original Gothic windows were discovered, with Gothic walls and some other details from the era of Charles IV, although it was generally assumed that there was nothing left from the original building. The monastery was abolished within the framework of the Joseph II reforms in 1785, and four years later a sick house was festively opened here, where 163 poor, incurably ill and diseased persons were accommodated. The monastery was used as a sick house until 1955.

 

In 1960, the dilapidated object was given to the Ministry of Interior, which in 1965 founded a Museum of the Frontier Guards here, and in 1973 a Museum of the National Security Corps and the armies of the Ministry of Interior. Popular stuffed police dog named Brek was one of the exhibits, being famous for catching the frontier trespassers in the totalitarian regime. From 1962 on, a general reconstruction of the monasterial premises took place and lasted for approximately twenty years. In 1982 the traffic playground for children was built here in the garden. After the change of the political regime, a new exposition was opened with the Police Museum. The functioning and development of police and security corps in our state’s territory are introduced on a surface area of 1,680 m2, from its establishment on. There are also unique exhibits commemorating the Austria-Hungary era; there is a permanent exhibition of police weapons, a collection of uniforms and helmets, and the main focus is placed on criminal police.

 

Show history

Information source: Muzeum Policie ČR