Krkonošské muzeum Vrchlabí, Regional museum in Vrchlabí, Czech Republic.
Krkonošské muzeum Vrchlabí is a museum run by the Krkonoše National Park Administration, with its main building in the former convent of the Augustinian monastery. Since November 2023 the renovated convent has housed the Muzeum Krkonoš visitor centre, while smaller exhibitions occupy three gabled houses on Krkonošská street, rebuilt in 1976–80 and joined in 2009–10 by a replica of a fourth house with a half-timbered gable.
The museum grew out of a library founded in 1881 and was established in 1883 as the Riesengebirgsmuseum of the German-speaking Krkonoše association, with botanist Viktor Cypers von Landrecy as first curator. In 1941 the collections moved into the first floor of the Augustinian monastery; the state took over in 1945 and 1950, and after a roof collapse in 1967 the building closed for repairs until 1984. A reconstruction from 2017 to 2023 produced the new Muzeum Krkonoš visitor centre.
The museum displays how people lived and worked in the region, especially through mountain meadow farming, glassmaking, and mining practices. These crafts continue to shape the area's character and show the connection between inhabitants and their mountain environment.
The main building is the former Augustinian convent; the museum's smaller exhibitions occupy three gabled houses on Krkonošská street, extended in 2009–10 by a replica of a fourth house with a half-timbered gable. The convent displays reopened in November 2023 after reconstruction begun in 2017.
The museum's main building is the former convent of the Augustinian order, taken over for the collections in 1941 after Father Johann Fischer was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Eastern Front. The monastery was returned to the order in 1991 and sold to the Krkonoše National Park Administration.
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