NTM is considering where the railway museum will be

Prague - The National Technical Museum (NTM) is considering several options for the location of its branch in the form of a Railway Museum. A few years ago, the government approved a proposal to build a Railway Museum in the former depot of Masaryk Station in the city center, which Prague also supports. However, Culture Minister Vítězslav Jandák has now instructed the NTM director to develop a "concept for railway museology," which also contemplates the possibility of abandoning the use of the depot for the future museum. "Everything is still in the stage of considerations," said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture (MK), Ludmila Kadrnková, to ČTK today.
The Old Prague Club alerted journalists today to the change in stance of the NTM management; its members are concerned about the site with landmarks of industrial architecture. The location is one of the most lucrative plots in Prague. Art historians fear that the goal of recent steps may be an attempt to sell the entire area as plots of land. The spokesperson for Czech Railways (ČD), Aleš Ondrůj, told ČTK today that the land in the former depot will be returned to Czech Railways.
According to Ondrůj, NTM has agreed with the railways to build exhibits of railway vehicles in Děčín and Olomouc. He stated that the change of location for the railway exhibits of the technical museum does not contradict the relevant government resolution. However, that resolution specifies a concrete location for the museum, namely the former depot of Masaryk Station.
A Railway Museum in the area of Masaryk Station would be significant for several reasons, according to architectural historian Karel Ksandr. "The locomotive depot, which has been on the site since 1845, is the most authentic preserved example of industrial neoclassical architecture in Prague, and the collections of the Railway Museum are among the highest quality globally," Ksandr told reporters today.
Just in April, Mayor Pavel Bém informed the Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture that the city supports the establishment of a Railway Museum on the site of the former depot. Four days later, NTM Director Tomáš Kupec suggested to the director of Czech Railways, as the site manager, to exchange the Prague depot for the former Děčín-east station and establish the museum there. While this station is a quality example of industrial architecture, designed by Karel Schlimp, who also built the former Těšnov station in Prague, Ksandr argues that the location is insignificant compared to the center of Prague for the establishment of a museum.
The Ministry of Culture claims that it tasked Kupec with developing a concept for railway museology because the depot in Prague is too small for all exhibits. Ksandr refutes this, reminding that no museum displays all of its exhibits; some are kept in storage. Another argument from the MK is that there will be no tracks leading to the former depot, and without them, heavy exhibits cannot be handled. "That is not true; Czech Railways wants to retain eight active tracks in these locations, which is half of what Czech Railways currently has outside the intended museum area," Ksandr said.
Kadrnková stated that a museum for railway exhibits could eventually be established in Prague, Děčín, another location, or due to the volume of exhibits at several sites. "Various options are just beginning to emerge, which will be presented," she said. The proposal to exchange the land in Prague for Děčín is, according to her, just one option.
According to Ksandr, the NTM director proposes to Czech Railways an exchange of land worth about a billion with land valued at only millions. The director of the Railway Museum, Karel Zeithammer, approached Kupec on June 1 with a request to abandon his intention to exchange one facility for the other, stating that such an exchange would be the biggest loss in NTM’s history; on June 5, Kupec dismissed Zeithammer.
NTM will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding in 2008, and by then its main building in Letná is to be renovated. For the first time since occupying this building, the institution will have the entire facility for its collections. The lack of space led in the 1940s to the architecture archive being placed in Invalidovna, where it was affected by the flood in 2002.
In the 1970s, the brewing museum was located in Plzeň, where the originally state-owned property gradually became part of a private company. The aviation technology collections were placed in Prague-Kbely; the railway transport collection is distributed across 33 locations in the Czech Republic, while only eight objects are in the transport hall of the museum in Letná, despite NTM owning 114 rail vehicles. In 2000, the government allocated 270 million crowns for the establishment of the Railway Museum.
Czech Railways has its own railway museum in Lužná near Rakovník.