National Museum

The National Museum (Národní muzeum) is the Czech Republic's largest and most significant museum, occupying a monumental Neo-Renaissance building at the top of Wenceslas Square since 1891 and declared a national cultural monument in 1962. The Historical Building was closed for eight years of reconstruction and reopened on 28 October 2018 — the centenary of Czechoslovakia's founding — revealing restored ceremonial halls, a pantheon of notable Czech figures, and permanent collections spanning natural history, palaeontology, mineralogy, and Czech and world history. It is connected by an underground tunnel to the New Building, the former Federal Assembly and later Radio Free Europe headquarters, which hosts major temporary exhibitions. In front of the museum's steps are memorials to Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc, the students who self-immolated in 1969 in protest against the Soviet occupation.