Jan Amos Comenius Museum in Uherský Brod
Comenius Museum in Uherský Brod has been caring for the complete legacy of Jan Amos Comenius since 1960s-1970s without focusing on just one concrete aspect of his numerous activities. A visitor must conceive from his very first step that Comenius was an extremely extraordinary personality of the 17th century European history, whose ideas are still fresh. The current permanent exposition opened in 1992, and although it presents Jan Amos’s wanderings in an original way, due to the latest developments in museology, exhibition and audiovisual techniques, it lags behind its possible potential. To keep with Comenius’ principles of teaching – illustrative nature, step-by-step provision of information, suitability and systematic character – has become more easy.
The general principles of Comenius’ didactic science play the role of a springboard for the team of designers of the exposition which came together in 2020. It comprises of the employees of the Comenius Museum in Uherský Brod and comeniologists from allied institutions (Czech Academy of Sciences, Comenius Museum in Přerov). When designing the exposition, the team reflected their endeavours to introduce Comenius in the context of his times, but at the same time not to forget his legacy for and place in the contemporary society. This idea was felt fully tangible in a design by an architectural studio from Brno which combined classical display of objects with the latest technologies and interactive elements. In keeping with Comenius’ principles, it creates a three-degree touring track. The designers had also in mind that this would be the third stage of the revitalization of the exposition, and by their conceptual, material and design solutions they cleverly complemented the two previous stages (finished in 2017-2018).
The exposition is placed in four halls. Visitors will first learn about the life of Comenius in dates and wider contexts. Following are audiovisual installations inspired by the Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart as an opening space for the “remedy of human things”, which express Jan Amos’s lifelong endeavours to find a way out from the three labyrinths of those times and overcome the crisis of knowledge, religion and politics. The last hall is symbolically devoted not to words, but to pictures.
