The Centre of Building Heritage Plasy of the National Technical Museum has completed its first year of successful operation and on 18 March 2017 it opened its second visitor season. Not only will the permanent Exhibition of Construction, which was visited by a total of 24,427 visitors during the first season, be open, but also the new exhibition Treasures in Czech Ceramic Tiles.

The Centre of Building Heritage has become another popular visitor destination in the Pilsen Region. In the picturesque valley of the Střela River in the former farm buildings of the Plzeň monastery, it presents visitors with building history and traditional architecture from the Middle Ages to the present day. In the premises of the former brewery, the Exposition of Construction combines honest traditional craftsmanship and unique collection items with new technologies and elements of austere industrial architecture. The number of visitors and their satisfaction confirms that the highest award in the prestigious National Museum Competition Gloria musaealis in the category of Museum Achievement of the Year 2015, which the National Technical Museum received for the creation of the Centre of Building Heritage, was well deserved.

“Theinterest and recognition of the professional public is very important to us,” says Pavel Kodera, head of the NTM Centre for Building Heritage. “However, we are also very encouraged by the positive feedback from visitors who come to visit us without being attracted to building. We have met a number of people who leave surprised and delighted by how interesting and appealing building can be.”

In 2017, the National Technical Museum plans to open two new exhibitions at the Plasy Building Heritage Centre. The first, entitled Treasures in Czech Ceramic Tiles, will be open to the public from 19 March, while the second, dedicated to Czech inventor and patriot Ludvík Očenášek, will be open to the public from 14 May. In addition, visitors will have access to the Court of Building Crafts and a series of thematic workshops in the summer. For more information, please visit www.muzeum-plasy.cz.

TREASURES IN CZECH CERAMIC TILES EXHIBITION

On Sunday, 19 March 2017, the National Technical Museum will open a new exhibition dedicated to the tradition of Czech ceramic tiles in the premises of the Centre of Building Heritage in Plasy.

Ceramic tiling materials have a rich history in our territory. The oldest exhibit on display is an early Gothic tile found in Plasy during archaeological research of the local Cistercian monastery. Large-scale industrial production of ceramic tiles in our country began at the end of the 19th century. Many small factories for the production of tiles were established here. Relatively soon, three Czech ceramic factories in Rakovník, Chlumčany and Horní Bříza came to the fore, and in the future they became significant world producers setting general trends.

“It is interesting,” says Jakub Chaloupka, the curator of the exhibition, “that the development of ceramic production in Plzeň and Rakovník was actually inadvertent. The original intention in these localities was to mine coal, but it was either not found in sufficient quantities or its extraction was complicated by groundwater levels and flooding. Instead of coal, however, rich deposits of kaolin and lupk were found. And the development of ceramic production was set.”

The exhibition, aptly titled Treasures in Czech Ceramic Tiles, shows the development of ceramic tiles based on the production of the three factories mentioned above. Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about past production processes and techniques, as well as contemporary fashion trends and other influences that were quickly reflected in the design of both tiles and tiles. The authors of the exhibition have also remembered the children visitors. They will be able to test their skills and imagination in the so-called creative zones by creating various mosaics and tangrams. The exhibition was created in direct cooperation with Lasselsberger, s.r.o., the RAKO brand. It will last until 26 November 2017.

National Technical Museum, Centre of Building Heritage Plasy, Pivovarská 5,
331 01 Plasy

Mgr. Adam Dušek
Head of PR and Public Relations Department
Email: adam.dusek@ntm.cz
Mob: +420 774 426 828
National Technical Museum
Kostelní 42, 170 78, Prague 7

Mgr. Kristýna Koderová
Department of PR and Public Relations
Email: kristyna.koderova@ntm.cz
Tel.: 373 300 744 / mobile: 777 710 802
National Technical Museum Centre of Building Heritage,
Pivovarská 5, 331 01 Plasy