Rok 1814 – rok počátků (Pokus o reinterpretaci Gymnazijního muzea v Opavě)

Pages	42 - 54
Citation	ŠOPÁK, Pavel. Rok 1814 – rok počátků (Pokus o reinterpretaci Gymnazijního muzea v Opavě). Museum: Museum and Regional Studies. Prague: National Museum, 2014, 52(1), 42 - 54. ISSN 1803-0386. Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/en/periodicals/mmars/52-1/rok-1814-rok-pocatku-pokus-o-reinterpretaci-gymnazijniho-muzea-v-opave

Museum: Museum and Regional Studies | 2014/52/1

This paper criticizes the idea of the Silesian Museum as the oldest public museum in the Czech Republic. The analysis is based on the questioning truthfulness of the first May 1814 as a date of establishing museum, and further analyses the concept of the public. The paper explains why the myth of the oldest Museum in Opava took and survived several changes of regimes. Opava museum is presented as an institution rather concluding the previous development of museums of the 18th century than as anticipatory development of new museums as civic institutions in relation to the region. In this respect, the oldest museums are museums in Brno and Prague. The analysis deals with the researchers yet completely omitted written sources and at the same time with a new reading of printed sources, a contemporary periodicals and historical reports. The conclusion is clear: the year 2014 is a case of the two hundredth anniversary of the first written report of Opava museum, however the concept of establishing or founding such institution as museum in one day is a priori absurd: the museum is not found or established in a single act of creation or destruction, but museum is a constant, never-ending process of maturation, formation and crystallization and a process of a permanent defence of their own, truly spiritual sense and mission, which is especially true for the present of the Silesian Museum.

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