Postal Museum

program

Postal Museum – permanent exposition:

• postage stamps of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia, including first day covers (FDCs), philatelic rarities and counterfeits
• oldest stamps of European and non-European countries, United Nations stamps
• specialized stamp design collections – Prague Castle, Russian gubernian parliaments, classic pre-1918 Austrian stamps, old pre-1871 German states, etc.
• pre-stamp letters, cancellations, first newspaper stamps in the world
• occasional exhibitions on stamp design and postal history
• library and study room with philatelic and postal history literature
• original mid-19th century interior of the historical building including four saloons with murals by Josef Navrátil

opening hours

history

Vávra’s House – Postal Museum

The street’s name is derived from a group of water mills, which were built here as early as in the 14^th century, and were named New Mills. The single-storey Vávra’s House, which is located in the vicinity of the water tower, was originally the residential part of the mill situated in this place. There is a Renaissance core to the house, still visible today in the basement. It was rebuilt in Baroque style around 1678; it has, for example, a substantial Baroque truss. In 1834, it was modified in Classicist style. It got the name after the owner in the early 20^th century. At that time, most of the mills were demolished, so we only know them from archive photographs. From the early 19^th century on, this mill was owned by a rich miller Václav Michalovic, who collected objects of art and was also a popular benefactor. He had a friend in the painter Josef Navrátil, who was at that time the most popular Prague’s decorative painter, and who realized the entire decoration of the mill’s residential part. This resulted in an unusually precious interior in which the rich register of Navrátil’s themes documents the period of the historicising Romantism: in the first room, there is an ornamentally painted ceiling with flowers, in the second, the so called Theatre Room, there are sixteen scenes from historical legends and plays, such as Libuše’s delegation to Přemysl Oráč, Oldřich and Božena, or Spa maid Zuzana taking Václav IV across the Vltava River. There is a self-portrait of Josef Návrátil in this room, with a palette in his hand, and a signature and date of the painting completion in 1847. In the third room, there are romantic landscapes, such as the Landscape around Kamýk, Gastein Spa, and other romantic motives of the Alpine nature, as Navrátil experienced it during his travels in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. These paintings are among the last Navrátil’s wall paintings in Prague. They were restored in the 50s by prof. Bohuslav Slánský and his studio from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.

During the 1980s, it was necessary to carry out a general reconstruction of the entire object, rather dilapidated at that time. The building was restored to suit the needs of the Postal Museum by ing. arch. Milan Pavlík and ing. Pavel Havlas from the National Institute for the Reconstruction of Monumental Towns and Objects. Interior decorations were restored by a group of eight professionals lead by prof. Raimund Ondráček. The paintings of Josef Navrátil were restored by academic paintress Naděžda Mašková. Thanks to the fact that for most of the time, the house was owned by the descendants of the miller Vávra, nearly all the original equipment contributing to creating the historical atmosphere were preserved, such as parquettes laid in patterns, chandeliers of edged crystal, door handles, lock fittings, doors with etched glass, etc.

The Postal Museum was established in 1918 as a part of the department of posts and telegraphs; since 1988 it has been located in the monumental object at New Mills (Nové mlýny) – it was opened on the occasion of the World Exhibition of Postal Stamps in Prague 1988.

The 2002 flood damaged the museum and it was re-opened after repairs on the 14^th May 2003.