Open-air Museum Vysočina, Open-air folk museum in Veselý Kopec and Hlinsko, Czech Republic
Open-Air Museum Vysočina is a collection of historic buildings moved from the Vysočina region that displays traditional rural architecture from different periods. The houses are furnished with objects and tools that show how people lived and worked in this part of the Czech countryside.
The museum was founded in 1972 to rescue buildings from the Vysočina region that faced demolition. It focuses on structures from the 19th and 20th centuries, documenting how rural life evolved over generations.
The relocated buildings show how people in the Vysočina region lived and worked daily, with visible evidence of their craft traditions throughout the structures. Walking through these spaces helps visitors understand how weaving, shoemaking, and other trades shaped everyday life and the local economy.
The museum has three parts: the Veselý Kopec open-air exhibition, the Betlém heritage reserve in central Hlinsko, and the Svobodné Hamry water-powered hamlet. The Veselý Kopec area lies in open country near Hlinsko, so plan for walking between buildings set in the landscape.
The fourteen-sided barn from the late 17th century, moved here from Sádek u Poličky, is described in the sources as the only structure of its kind in Europe. The museum also holds a flax-drying kiln (pazderna) from the late 18th century with its original heating equipment, brought from Paseky u Všeradova.
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