The Moravian Museum will build an information center for 44 million

Brno - The Moravian Museum will build an information center dedicated to the history of genetics and the popularization of scientific discoveries at the Bishop's Courtyard in Brno. The father of genetics is Gregor Johann Mendel, who worked as a member of the Agricultural Society and the Natural History Society at the Bishop's Courtyard. The museum received a grant of 44.2 million crowns from the European Union and the state budget for the construction of the center, said director Martin Reissner to ČTK today.
      Due to the Mendelianum project - an attractive world of genetics, museum workers will demolish a staircase from the 1980s in the historical building. They will reopen the open space of the tower spanning three floors. Visitors on the ground floor will enter a platform that will slowly move upward with them. During the ascent, they will receive information about the development of the field.
      "The platform will stop at points where there will be an opening to the original space where the scientific society that Mendel was a member of held meetings," said Reissner. A modern information center will be created there, intended for promoting science, conferences, or discussions.
There is already a Mendel Museum in Brno. It is operated by Masaryk University in the Augustinian monastery in Old Brno, where Mendel was a monk and later an abbot. According to Reissner, both institutions can complement each other well - the Mendel Museum as a memorial documenting the researcher's legacy and Mendelianum as a workplace following the further development of genetics and natural sciences.
      Construction work has already begun at the Bishop's Courtyard, and the project also required the relocation of part of the collections. The opening of the Mendelianum is planned for October 2014.