History of PM

History of the Postal Museum

The Postal Museum was established by a decision of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs on 18 December 1918, becoming the first museum institution of the newly independent Czechoslovakia. The main initiator and first director was postal officer and historian Václav Dragoun.

In its early years, the museum had neither its own collections nor exhibition spaces. Its primary task was therefore to acquire objects, mainly through transfers from post offices, donations, and the division of records with Austria. Negotiations over the transfer of archival materials were only partially successful. Nevertheless, the collections gradually expanded and enabled the creation of the first permanent exhibition, opened in 1928 at the Karolinum in Prague.

A lack of space soon became apparent and was resolved by relocating the museum to the former St. Gabriel’s Monastery in Smíchov. A new exhibition opened there in early 1933, and the museum, in terms of the scope and quality of its collections, ranked alongside renowned domestic museums and galleries.

The successful development was interrupted by the German occupation in 1939. The museum became involved in propaganda activities and its work stagnated. It was closed to the public in September 1944. Restoration followed after liberation in May 1945, although a full exhibition was only gradually made accessible. During the socialist period, the museum primarily served an ideological role, while scholarly research into postal history was sidelined. This led to the closure of exhibition halls, storage of collections in depositories, and transfers to other institutions.

Positive changes came in the second half of the 1960s. A significant milestone was the opening in 1976 of a large exhibition on the history of postal administration in part of the former Cistercian monastery in Vyšší Brod. Another key step was the establishment of a new Prague headquarters in Vávra House, where an exhibition on stamp design was opened in 1988.

After 1989, the museum gained new opportunities for development. In 1993, it became part of the state enterprise Czech Post, and as of 1 January 2026, it was incorporated into the National Technical Museum, whose professional focus corresponds well with the nature of the museum’s collections.

National Technical Museum

The National Technical Museum in Prague was founded in 1908. Over more than a century, it has built extensive collections documenting the development of many technical fields, as well as natural and exact sciences and industry in the territory of today’s Czech Republic. Today, the museum presents the history of technical ingenuity in more than 30 permanent exhibitions.

In addition to its main building, the museum operates the Centre for Building Heritage in Plasy, where in 2015 it opened a large modern museum of construction, and the Railway Depository in Chomutov, where it makes its railway collection accessible to the public. Since the beginning of 2026, the Postal Museum, with its exhibitions in Vyšší Brod and Prague, has also become part of the institution.