Letohrad Museum of Crafts

Do you know what a shingle maker, metalworker, cooper or wheelwright was engaged in? Come and reminisce about the old days, when people relied primarily on their skill, skill and materials from the immediate surroundings. The Museum of Crafts is the largest of its kind in the Czech Republic. You will discover a 100-year-old school class, a historical depot, a Retro exposition and even a dental and gynecological surgery from the time of the First Republic. You can also see the famous skiopticon or magic lamp or device called laterna magica and other new exhibits.

Museum of Crafts in Letohrad was opened on 18 May 2000 and is located in the listed area of Novy dvur from 1750.

The museum offers a total of 9 sightseeing routes. In Circuit A you can see, for example, a unique movable open-air museum of crafts with 25 carved craftsmen who demonstrate their crafts. This open-air museum was made on the order of our museum by a Trebechovice woodcarver. The realization was preceded by photographing and drawing individual machines and equipment, sometimes it was even necessary to find out both the specific movement of the machine and the craftsman. Circuit B called Kolar will show you several interesting machines, such as a wood spreader that we got from a wheelwright from Vamberk or a bending press from the wheelwright Mr. Dudek from neighboring Lukavice.

Since May 2013, the exhibition “dental and gynecological surgery” has been newly accessible to visitors, showing 2 different dental surgeries, X-ray and operating room from 1960. The first is a dentist’s office in a burgher apartment, where there is even 1 of the first drills, driven by pedaling. The dental procedure was not nearly as pleasant then as it is today, the drilling took much longer and there was no talk of any water cooling. This exhibition shows medicine in a slightly different way than it is known today and every visitor will surely take away an interesting experience from here.

Another exposition, which is the already mentioned “school class”, is furnished from old benches from the village of Hrusova and a department from the local school from Kuncice near Letohrad, where Mr. Knezek taught, who was responsible for writing the oldest memoirs of the inhabitants of Kuncice. In schools, mainly such subjects as religion, reading, writing, geography and history, or even arithmetic with simple accounting were taught.

For more information about the Pardubice region, from which museum comes, click here and here.