In the first six days, almost 20,000 visitors came to see the Czech crown jewels at Prague Castle. On Thursday, a day reserved exclusively for school classes, around 2,000 pupils and teachers visited the exhibition. Anyone interested can admire the crown jewels free of charge in the Vladislav Hall of Prague Castle until the end of September.
Compared to last year, when the exhibition ran for eight days and was visited by almost 34,000 people, this year’s presentation recorded a slight decline in visitor numbers. On days when the exhibition was open to the public, an average of 3,500 people visited the crown jewels every day. Last year, the average was 4,200 people per day, reports the news portal idnes.cz.
During President Miloš Zeman’s ten years in office, they were only on display four times. The last time they were on display was in January 2023, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Czech Republic. This year, President Petr Pavel decided to present the Czech crown jewels to the public every year on St Wenceslas’ Day.
Veronika Wolf, Director of Culture and Programmes at the President’s Office, explained at the opening of this year’s exhibition: ‘By exhibiting the Crown Jewels every year, we will enable more people to see these valuable artefacts. The exhibition will no longer be a highly exclusive affair.’
The exhibition, which is entitled ‘The Secret Power of Stones’, shows visitors what the crown of St Wenceslas originally looked like at the coronation of Charles IV in 1347 thanks to a holographic animation. Originally, 13 green emeralds and 60 pearls adorned the crown, but Charles IV later had these replaced with blue sapphires.
The exhibition is open daily from 09:00 to 17:00 until 30 September, with one exception on Thursday 26 September, when it will only be open from 13:00.
