Top Prague museums

The riverside Museum Kampa is a modern art gallery with a dedicated collection of works by Frantizek Kupka, a Czech artist who many regard as the father of abstract art. You can take in his early Expressionist watercolours, abstract oil paintings and transitional pastels; but there’s also a good range of temporary exhibitions, Cubist paintings and sculptures by other Czech artists and sculptors, too.

The Museum of Decorative Arts celebrates almost every type of applied art and design, all housed in a renowned 19th century building. Its unrivalled collection includes ceramics, lacework, pottery, toys, jewellery, furniture and other curios; it’s one of the most extensive collections in the world. As you might imagine, the interior itself is intricately decorated with high, patterned ceilings and detailed doors and staircases.

For Prague museums that bring you up to speed with more recent historic events, the Museum of Communism is filled with interesting memorabilia that gives you a deeper insight into Communist Czechoslovakia during the 20th century. Housed on the second floor above a casino, there’s film footage and propaganda posters - replicas of which you can buy in the gift shop - with simple explanations of the politics during the time.

Alfons Mucha was a mucha-loved Czech artist in Prague, renowned for his Art Nouveau style drawings and paintings. The airy, white-walled museum is split into seven sections, ranging from his decorative panels to Parisian posters (where he made a name for himself), as well as photographs and personal items of Mucha. To remember your trip to one of the prettiest museums in Prague, make sure you pick up a postcard or other Mucha-themed print in the small gift shop.

Appropriately named, this dinky museum is tucked away behind the wooded Petrin Hill, but you really shouldn’t miss it. There’s around 40 works by the Russian Anatoly Konenko - check out the smallest book in the world, a 30-page edition of Chekhov’s Chameleon. Other items worth cooing at include camels passing through the eye of a needle and a flea wearing golden horseshoes - yes, really.

At the head of Wenceslas Square lies Prague’s National Museum , as much a cultural monument on the outside as well as inside, and is connected via an underground bridge with the drab-looking New Building. The Natural History collection in the New Building is one of its largest, with over 15 million items, and inside the historical building you can take a guided tour of its beautiful hall, which is filled with wonderful paintings and statues by Czech artists. This museum is included on most Prague holiday packages .