National Technical Museum (Národní technické muzeum)

It opened on July 5, 1908, as the Technical Museum of the Czech Kingdom. The idea grew from the 1717 State Engineering School and Vojtěch Náprstek’s 1862 Industrial Museum. By 1910, they were showing off collections in the Schwarzenberg Palace. Architect Milan Babuška started the current Letná building in 1938, but the Nazis moved in during 1941 for their Ministry of Post. The museum spent years in exile. It partially reopened in 1948 and was nationalized in 1951, but the staff didn't get the whole building back until 1990. After the 2002 floods wrecked the archives, the place had a massive decade-long renovation. It finally reopened fully in 2013, exactly as Babuška planned.

The Transport Hall is the heart of the museum. It's a three-story hangar for every machine that ever moved a Czech. You'll see the NW President from 1898, the first car built in these lands. It looks like a carriage without the horse. Then there's the Tatra 80 from 1935. This bulletproof beast belonged to President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. Look up and you'll spot Jan Kašpar’s 1911 monoplane, the first craft to make a long-distance flight in the country. Right next to it hangs a 1945 Supermarine Spitfire. It's a powerful monument to the Czech pilots who flew with the RAF in the war. You'll see rows of gleaming vintage cars from manufacturers like Škoda and Praga that once dominated European roads. Giant steam engines sit on real tracks, looking ready to pull out of the hall at any second. It’s a dense, heavy collection that shows exactly how Bohemia became the workshop of an empire.

Head to the basement for something different. The replica coal mine is 490 meters of dark, cramped tunnels. They built it in the 50s using real timber and drills from actual mines. It’s loud. You hear the pneumatic tools and see the dim glow of carbide lamps. It feels real. The tour isn't just for show; it takes you deep under the building into a network of tunnels that mirror the conditions workers faced for decades. Upstairs, the chemistry exhibit shows off the lighter side of Czech genius. Don’t miss the toy-like machine Otto Wichterle built on his kitchen table in 1961. He used a Merkur building set and a bicycle dynamo to cast the first soft contact lenses. That little contraption changed the lives of millions. It's a mix of heavy industrial grit and high-level intellectual breakthroughs.

Humans have been mapping the stars for 6,000 years. This gallery tracks that obsession. You can actually touch an iron meteorite that slammed into Argentina 5,000 years ago. But the real draw is the Rudolf II era. Back in the late 1500s, Prague was the scientific capital of Europe. Giants like Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler lived here. The museum has the actual brass sextants they used. These tools, built by Habermel and Bürgi around 1600, were incredibly precise. Kepler used the data from these exact brass instruments to figure out how planets actually move. It’s the birth of modern space science in one room. When Emperor Rudolf II invited the best minds to his court, he turned the city into a giant laboratory. These massive observation tools are more than just museum pieces; they are the devices that proved the earth wasn't the center of everything.

Beyond the massive engines, the museum looks at how technology changed the home. The Intercamera gallery has a rare 1840 daguerreotype from Louis Daguerre himself. You’ll also see the first camera that ever filmed in the Czech lands. In the Printing section, you can see how books were made before screens took over. They have old presses where you can see how lead type was hand-set and inked. It was hard work. The museum even covers the history of your own home. The Household Appliances exhibit tracks how daily life got easier (and more electric) over the last century. You can trace the design shift from ornate Victorian machines to the sleek, functional lines of the Soviet era. It’s a relatable, human way to end your visit before heading back out into the modern streets of Holešovice.