GET TO KNOW OUR EXPOSITION
NATURE OF REGION BENÁTKY
The exhibition from 1997 is dedicated to the nature of the region. It introduces animals and plants that can be found around the river Jizera. The exhibition is complemented by attractive animal exhibits, minerals and fossils. Recently, the exhibition was enriched with a research dictionary – Return of bison and wild horses to the wild near Benátky nad Jizerou.
LORDS OF DRAŽICE
Another part of the exhibition is dedicated to the lords of Dražice – an important aristocratic family, whose history is connected with the very beginning of Benátky and the Venetian region. Rod, who used a golden twig of a vine with three leaves on a blue field as heraldic sign, combined his ascension with the service of the monarch and the church. John IV is most famous for his family. from Dražice, in the years 1301-1343 the bishop of Prague. The name of another of the Jans from Dražice is associated with a document dated to the years 1340-1349, which transferred the city law from Old Benátky to the hill above the Jizera. This document is considered to be the first document demonstrably relating to present-day Benátky.
TYCHO BRAHE AND BENÁTKY
The exhibition commemorates the personality of the important physicist and astronomer Tycho Brahe, who stayed at the Venetian castle in the years 1599-1600. Due to his stay and especially for his astronomical research, numerous building modifications were made on the second floor of the chateau, where he stayed with his family. Astronomical instruments were also installed in several rooms, and a chemical laboratory was set up there. According to tradition, Brahe made his observations on the floor of the castle in a room with a tall window, where his work is still remembered by the “Venetian” meridian. An interactive exhibition on prehistoric and medieval astronomy is also dedicated to the legacy of Tychon Brahe in the Venetian Museum.
JOHN OF WERTH – General of the Thirty Years’ War
The following part of the exhibition recalls the personality of John of Werth, who won Benátky in 1647 for his services on the battlefield of the Thirty Years’ War. It was during the reign of Jan of Werth that the last Venetian chateau was last rebuilt, when the Baroque, current front wing was added to it.
BENDA FAMILY MEMORIAL HALL AND BEDŘICH SMETANA MEMORIAL HALL
These parts of the exhibition are reminiscent of the Venetian natives of the composer Jiří Antonín Bend and his brother, as well as the composer and violin virtuoso of the Classicist period, František Bend. The second memorial hall is dedicated to the personality of another composer – Bedřich Smetana, who worked at the Venetian chateau in the years 1844-1847 as a music teacher in the Thun-Hohenstein family.
JAROSLAV VANCL – MERKUR
A long-term exhibition dedicated to Jaroslav Vancl, a native of Benátky, and his famous metal kit Merkur. The exhibition was borrowed from the largest collector in the Czech Republic, Mr. Jiří Mládek.