Open-air museums are very popular in the Czech Republic now. Besides the permanent popularity of these institutions, they attract more and more criticism - not only from the professional public - for their today’s condition. Attention is paid mainly to the insufficient level of authenticity, which causes the public to be misinformed about historical reality. The degree of how the depicted facts are truthful constitutes the basic problem. Considerable danger also insists in hiding or non-admission of non-identical materials and
techniques. When using intended deceits, the open-air museums
as cultural and memory institutions can easilyl and in conflict with
museum ethics.
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In the text, the authors demonstrate that a Czech open-air museum was founded in Prague in 1895, well ahead other European countries. It was the first open-air museum in the then Europe south of Scandinavia. It was far ahead of its time also through the connection with a large collection museum. The original exhibition village changed into a permanent open-air museum. The Czech "skansen", likewise the Swedish one, meant an inspiration for further exhibition and museum projects. From the very beginning of the existence of an ethnographic village at the Czechoslavic
Ethnographic Exhibition, it was planned to maintain it. For subsequent six years, the village was used for ethnographic and cultural purposes, just as current open-air museums are. Its spaces were not closed and non-functional. For this reason, we could consider the ethnographic village to be “wooden heritage”, which does no longer exist now. Despite its uniqueness, and scholar, social and cultural benefits, the ethnographic village from the year 1895 has not survived. Its extinction in the year 1901 was caused by a wood-decay fungus. The authors believe there is still a possibility of renewing this ethnographic village