National Technical Museum

The Narodni technicke muzeum occupies a functionalist building of 1938-1942 on Letna, and its central transport hall is the reason to come: a single space several storeys high with a glazed roof, in which locomotives, railway carriages, motor cars, motorcycles and aircraft are arranged on the floor, on balconies and hanging from the structure, so the whole history of Czech transport engineering is visible at once from a gallery. The collection is strong because this was an industrial country - Skoda, Tatra, Laurin and Klement, Praga, Aero, Avia and the Ringhoffer works all built here. Around the hall are further departments: astronomy, printing, photography, timekeeping, architecture, household technology and a reconstructed coal mine in the basement, walked as a route. The museum is old - founded in 1908 - and the collections reflect a century of acquisition.

What you actually see

• One vast transport hall - locomotives, cars and aircraft on floors, balconies and wires.
• Czech industrial engineering - Skoda, Tatra, Praga, Aero and Ringhoffer represented.
• A mine in the basement - a reconstructed coal working, walked as a route.
• Departments around it - astronomy, printing, photography and timekeeping.

When to go

All year. A day.

Honest expectations

Closed Mondays and very busy in school holidays. The mine route is guided with limited places. Labelling is uneven across departments. The building is large - allow real time.

Nearby

Letna park and the Prague Castle approach are a short walk away.