Musaion - Folk Art Museum, Petrin Hill

---

I bought the entrance tickets, 80 Kc each, which is about $3.00, and then we took our jackets to the cloak room. I showed my camera to the lady there and made a motion of taking a picture. She pointed back to the museum shop/ticket office.

"Don't bother buying the ticket," Nancy said. "We probably won't want to take any pictures."

"O-kay," I replied.

We walked up the steps to the main exhibition area. "Look at the floor!, Nancy exclaimed. "Go back and buy the ticket so you can take pictures." -Bill took nice pictures last year of the various mosaics we saw around Prague. He put them on this travelblog and a man who has an Internet site featuring lovely mosaics from around the world saw the pictures and asked permission to put them on his site giving credit to Bill for the photos. Of course, we agreed and were delighted. So we have been getting pictures of mosaics everywhere we can find them to post and forward to him. The floor I saw was quite a nice old mosaic.

I did, and in the next several hours took over 200 pictures in this fabulous museum. We will post a number of entries with pictures in the near future. I do not want to forget the beautiful items on display there.

The museum, as it now exists, opened last November. "You would not believe how bad the building was before that," a young man in the museum cafe told us later. it was falling apart." In one of the exhibits they had pictures of the rooms before the renovation. The interior walls were crumbing, trees and vines were growing inside and it was pretty much a total wreck. The years of Soviet domination had about finished this lovely old structure. Some far sighted persons here in Prague realized the potential of the building as a museum and it is delightfully restored. Several people we have told about the museum recall seeing this obviously once gracious building in ruins. They are all delighted that it has been put to such a good use. The collections displayed in the building had not had a good home and it is wonderful that they are now out for all to see. In addition to the permanent displays there were artists on hand demonstrating needlework and pot throwing so a visitor has a chance to interact with artists preserving the age old crafts of the Czech Republic. That was a real bonus and quite unexpected. This is a must-see museum for anyone coming to the city who is really interested in the loveliest folk art/crafts of the past.

---

Photos

The Kinsky Summer Palace
The dogs were having a wonderful time.