REGION

The Largest Open Air Museum in

the Czech Republic Has Started the

Construction of Its Fourth Complex

The Wallachian Open Air Museum is the largest museum of its kind in the Czech Republic. It was

founded in 1925 and is visited by more than half a million people a year. How will it develop in the

coming years and how does it evaluate the cooperation with the town of Rožnov pod Radhoštěm?

We talked with Ing. Jindřich Ondruš, director of the museum.

Mr Director, can you give our readers

a brief overview of the current state of

the Wallachian Open Air Museum?

In the presentation of cultural heritage,

we strive to incorporate modern trends

in the field of museology. We are looking

for new themes relevant to contemporary

visitors and transferring new objects of

folk architecture. At the same time, we are

increasing visitor comfort and services.

We have returned to the pre-Covid era in

our programme offer. Currently, we have

started the construction of a new depository

in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm and we will

be implementing a large-scale project

supported by the Norwegian Financial

Mechanism to secure the collections.

Wallachian Open Air Museum is not only

the complexes to visit, but also events,

exhibitions and education programmes.

Museum is a living organism. What I mean

by this is that even when the museum gates

are closed or when visiting hours are over,

life in the museum does not cease. For

the legacy of our founders to be fulfilled, for

buckwheat to grow in the fields, for sheep

to graze in the paddocks, it means providing

an invisible multitude of operational

activities that lead to one goal. We strive

to be a museum for the whole family, an

ideal place to share common experiences

and preserve memories. Every year we

prepare 50 cultural programmes, including

4 international folklore festivals. There are

also educational programmes for schools

and special interest groups, 3 seasonal

exhibitions, and 10 religious ceremonies.

“ Museum is a living organism. ”

How will the Wallachian Open Air

Museum develop in the coming years?

Behind the horizon of the Wallachian

Village, a new museum complex is being

built - Kolibiska. What will it look like?

The

Kolibiska

complex

represents

a unique project for us to expand an

open-air museum in the Central European

context. As part of the development,

we decided to expand the museum

to include a presentation of mountain

pastoral agriculture, forestry and tourism in

the specific environment of the Northwest

Carpathians.

We have been mapping buildings that are

endangered in the field for a long time.

Thanks to this project we will be able

to save some of them and plant them in

the museum area with a reconstructed

character of the environment. We try to

Ing. Jindřich Ondruš

Ředitel muzea

Director of the museum

enrich our planning with new approaches

in interpretive planning and use various

forms of collaboration with the public

or volunteers. Within the 25-hectare

site, three dozen buildings, paths and

landscape features are being created

to immerse you in the environment

of the Carpathian mountains, forests,

pastures and the lives of their inhabitants.

How do you evaluate the cooperation

with the town of Rožnov pod Radhoštěm?

The Wallachian Open Air Museum is

the main attraction of the town, which

makes close and effective cooperation

with the town necessary. Our daily visitor

numbers range from 200 to 10,000 people,

depending on the season and events. This

fact alone means, for example, that we must

deal with coordinating traffic and parking and

security issues. Rožnov is not only a transit

town, through which many tourists head to

the Beskid Mountains or further to Slovakia,

but also a tourist destination. Thanks to the

coordinated cooperation of the city with

hoteliers and other service providers, we are

involved in the development strategy and

cooperate in various cultural committees.

Mr Director, thank you for the interview.

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