The Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové, Museum and research center in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.
The Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové occupies a temple-form building by Jan Kotěra, built 1909–1912, with a Latin-cross ground plan, a polygonal nave and a dome over the crossing. Two female sculptures beside the entrance door stand for History and Industry, with a bronze figure of the young mayor František Ulrich. Kotěra also designed the functionalist interiors, including Thonet seats and wood panelling in the lecture hall.
Founded in 1880, the museum opened its first displays on 1 February 1885 in the former St Wenceslas chapel on Velké náměstí. In 1896 it split into a city history museum and a city industrial museum; the separate building by Jan Kotěra was built in 1909–1912. The natural science museum, created in 1939, merged with the art and industry museum in 1946.
The museum's name changed repeatedly under different founders: Regional Museum of Eastern Bohemia from 1974 to 1990, when it was merged with the Pardubice museum, and the present name since 1991. Its oldest journal, Práce muzea v Hradci Králové, has been published since 1958. Each December the Museum Advent Market draws around 10,000 visitors.
The building stands on Eliščino nábřeží, with the St. James Way (Czech route) passing in front of it. The entrance is on the side of the Latin-cross plan, under a fountain Kotěra designed; the lecture hall and library are inside. The museum manages the 1866 Battle Memorial at Chlum as a branch.
Since 1993 the museum has also managed the 1866 Battle of Chlum memorial, with its War Museum 1866 and the Chlum lookout tower, as a branch and department. The main building holds about two million collection items in fifteen sub-collections, from militaria and old prints to numismatics and ethnography.
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