On 29 September 2015, the National Technical Museum will open the Centre of Building Heritage Plasy, a unique centre for documentation, presentation and lifelong education in the fields related to building history and traditional architecture, in the newly renovated heritage-worthy space of the economic background of the monastery in Plasy.
“The opening of the Plasy Building Heritage Centre is a significant milestone in the history of the National Technical Museum,” says Karel Ksandr, Director General of the National Technical Museum. “On 29 September 2015, the day after we commemorate the 105th anniversary of the opening of the first expositions of the Technical Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Schwarzenberg Palace at Prague Castle on 28 September 1910, the museum is opening its next expositions outside the building in Prague on Letná. The construction of the Centre of Building Heritage on the premises of the exceptionally valuable monastery in Plasy was a challenging task and will bring the National Technical Museum in the Year of Industry and Technical Education not only an expansion of exhibition space outside Prague, but also new opportunities to work with visitors and an appropriate link between exhibition activities and educational and research activities.”
The Cistercian monastery complex in Plasy, one of the most important monastic complexes in Central Europe, has undergone significant changes since the 12th century. It underwent major development in the 17th and 18th centuries, when bold reconstructions were carried out according to the designs of the architects Jean Baptiste Mathey and Jan Blazej Santini. After 1826, when the property of the dissolved monastery was purchased by the Austrian politician Clement V. L. Metternich, further building modifications were carried out, including changes related to the economic plans of the Metternich family. After World War II, the grounds were confiscated and the buildings were used for various purposes. In 1995, the complex of the former monastery was listed as a national cultural monument and the restoration of its extremely valuable buildings is gradually underway.
In 2008, the National Technical Museum took over the buildings of the former monastery’s farm facilities, which were in a very dilapidated state. Within the framework of a project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Integrated Operational Programme (IOP), intervention area 5.1 – National support for the use of the potential of cultural heritage, the NTM has carried out the restoration of the economic area in two phases – in the first phase since 2012 the buildings of the former brewery, malthouse and mill and in the second phase since 2014 the restoration of the economic yard. The total cost of the project exceeds CZK 350 million.
In the brewery building, which during the restoration process has acquired the appearance of its construction more than 100 years ago, a permanent exhibition is being created, the aim of which is to present the historical development of building elements, materials and structures in an attractive and clear manner. in the exhibition, visitors have the opportunity to get acquainted with various building materials (wood, stone, clay) and to see the types of building structures on the individual floors of the brewery, from foundations and rough construction to surface treatment, types of opening fillings and the corresponding technical equipment of the buildings to roof trusses and roofing. Part of the exhibition is devoted to the principles of statics. The individual topics presented in the exhibition will be documented in depth in the study repository. On the top floor of the brewery, visitors will be surprised by the “cabinet” of the architect Jan Kaplický, a unique exhibition dedicated to an important personality that opens up a view of modern architectural work. Young visitors can enjoy the so-called building playground in the former brewery, where they can exercise their own building creativity.
In the renovated mill building adjacent to the exhibition area in the brewery there are multi-purpose rooms for thematic exhibitions. From 30 September 2015 to 29 November 2015, the exhibition “Calcarius, or Limestone” will be presented here, which shows lime and lime technology in an interesting way from the point of view of traditional construction and presents the now mostly forgotten methods of artisanal lime production and processing.
In the rugged area of the farmyard, spaces have been created for activities focused on the presentation of building technologies – craft and experience workshops, historical building machines and “educational building” exhibitions. A kind of ‘building and craft factory’ is being created here to enable the transmission of traditional techniques and skills in an experiential way through courses and workshops. There are workshops for traditional crafts, such as a carpenter’s workshop, a brickworks, a stonemason’s workshop, a mason’s workplace, as well as workshops for the processing of metal materials – a unique historical plumbing shop, a forge and a foundry. In the courtyard there will be historical construction machines (medieval crane, ram), in the garden behind the courtyard there is a simple kiln for brick and lime firing.
Thanks to the extraordinary qualities of the site, the themes of historical construction can be studied directly on the buildings, and the economic part of the monastery also preserves valuable architectural elements of the different periods, the oldest dating back to the 13th century, and a number of architectural and historical sights.
The facilities of the site will allow for programs for different school levels and for professional meetings in the Santini and Mathey Halls. In conjunction with the activities of the NTM Museum of Architecture and Construction, a professional library is also being built within the CSD, focusing on literature documenting historic and traditional construction.
The National Technical Museum is opening the Plasy Centre for Building Heritage with the aim of fostering respect for building heritage, conveying a deeper understanding of building history, passing on traditional skills and bringing inspiration and enjoyment.
Plasy Building Heritage Centre, Pivovarská 5, Plasy 331 01
Opening hours:
30 September to 1 November 2015 Tuesday to Sunday 10.00 to 17.00, closed Mondays,
from 2 November to 29 November 2015 only Saturday and Sunday 10.00 to 17.00.
For more information: www.muzeum-plasy.cz; www.ntm.cz
Download photos: http://leteckaposta.cz/965319410
Mgr. Adam Dušek
Head of PR and Public Relations
Email: adam.dusek@ntm.cz
Mob: +420 774 426 828
National Technical Museum
Kostelní 42, 170 78, Prague 7
Mgr. Pavel Kodera, Ph.D. Project Coordinator Centre of Building Heritage in Plasy Email: pavel.kodera@ntm.cz
Tel.: 373 300 734 / mobile: 777 190 734 National Technical Museum CSD, Pivovarská 5, 331 01 Plasy
The National Technical Museum would like to thank the following companies for their cooperation: UNISTAV CONSTRUCTION, a. s., which participated in the first phase of the restoration, and HOCHTIEF CZ, a. s., which participated in the second phase. Thanks also go to the general contractor of the exhibition, AV MEDIA, a. s.
Miroslav Friš, Chairman of the Board of Directors of UNISTAV CONSTRUCTION, said: “UNISTAV CONSTRUCTION is proud to have been able to participate in the implementation of the project for the construction of the Centre of Building Heritage Plasy, which was created on the initiative and under the auspices of the National Technical Museum in the historical premises of the Monastery in Plasy. The reconstruction was carried out using the original traditional building technologies and procedures in order to restore the reconstructed buildings to their original form from the end of the 19th century. The reconstruction has created a unique, publicly accessible study depository with a collection of historical building materials, structures and craft tools, with spaces for exhibition presentations. Historically valuable elements of building art from the Romanesque style to the 19th century are on display. Ordinary visitors can not only learn about the history of building and craftsmanship, but can even try out some of the original production processes with their own hands. The professional public can then access the depository of the collection of building materials, elements and structures. The actual reconstruction of the buildings on the premises of the monastery in Plasy has brought our company UNISTAV CONSTRUCTION a wealth of experience and knowledge, which will certainly be put to good use in the reconstruction of other historically valuable buildings.”
“Reconstruction of national cultural monuments is one of the most complex tasks a construction company can encounter. We work in an environment where any insensitive or unprofessional intervention by a construction contractor can cause irreversible damage. I am therefore pleased that our company has been able to apply its years of experience in revitalising historical projects and thus contribute to the development of our cultural heritage,” said the Chairman of the Board of HOCHTIEF CZ Ing. Tomáš Bílek.
Viktor Plass from AV MEDIA added: “The exhibition itself is primarily about combining the history of the subject with the sensitive support of modern audiovisual means in order to make the interpretation as visual as possible. The entire space is thus presented in an attempt to maximally underline the spirit of the individual stops, to support education and to transport the visitor to ancient times in an entertaining way, or to convey the most intense experience associated with the interpretation of the exhibition. In order to achieve these goals, the exhibition makes use of many state-of-the-art elements and principles of interpretation, ranging from building an atmosphere with ambient sounds, to accompanying explanatory animations, games, interactivity and state-of-the-art holographic effects. This allows us, for example, to visit the forest, see the work of foresters and listen to the sounds of woodwork. The exhibition also includes game rooms with interactive quizzes, targeted at children aged 6 and over, educational projections, and a timeline that shows how the architect’s desk changed depending on time. Several special technological solutions were also used in the exhibition, such as the Visualization of a growing building using the Pepper’s Ghost effect or the MultiTOuch multi-touch table, which allows better use of the screen area, more diverse applications, multi-user work with support for common gestures and, above all, clear intuitive work and control.”
The founding charter of the Plasy Monastery is on display at the Plasy Building Heritage Centre from 29 September to 1 November 2015. This is a quite extraordinary event, as the charter returns to the Plasy Monastery for the first time since its dissolution by Joseph II 230 years ago.
Visitors thus have a unique opportunity to see a rare document confirming that on 5 August 1146, the Bohemian Prince Vladislav II donated to the Cistercian Order a village with serfs in a place called Plasy (Plaz). The document is a 12th-century fake and is in the custody of the National Archives.
