Esperanto Museum in Svitavy, Language museum in Svitavy, Czech Republic

The Esperanto Museum occupies the ground floor of the Ottendorfer House, a red brick building from 1892 designed by Germano Wanderley and known as "The Red Library". Its permanent exhibition fills seven glass display cases with Esperanto books, pins, buttons and historical objects, plus five glass-covered tables and 13 wall frames. The 22,000 German books belong to the house's former public library, not to the museum; the museum's own collection includes over 14,000 catalogued Esperanto volumes.

The museum opened in September 2008 to preserve the history of a language created in the late 1800s by Zamenhof to promote understanding between nations. The building dates to 1892, when American patron Oswald Ottendorfer commissioned it as part of the area's industrial development.

The museum is run by volunteers from the Club of Friends of Esperanto in Svitavy, founded in 1933. It hosts language courses, travel evenings and annual thematic exhibitions, and in October 2011 it welcomed Esperanto Wikimania for the 10th anniversary of the Esperanto Wikipedia.

The museum occupies the ground floor of the Ottendorfer House, with exhibits arranged in seven glass cases, five glass-covered tables and 13 wall frames. A touchscreen computer gives further detail, and magazines and brochures near it are free to take. A small cafe in the back room is available for a chat.

The museum preserves a bust of Zamenhof, the language creator, which holds special meaning for the Czech Esperanto community. This artifact reminds visitors how a constructed language actually brought together people who would otherwise have never met.