Temporary Exhibitions within the Visitor Routes
As part of the visitor routes through the library and monastery spaces, we host temporary exhibitions on a variety of interesting themes. Their duration is only short-term, so we would be pleased to draw your attention to them.
Created on: 8. 12. 2025
Library of the Prague Archdiocese
The small exhibition dedicated to the Archdiocesan Library is located in Exhibition Room E within the library visitor route, from the beginning of Advent 2025 until the end of January 2026. What will you see?
In 2020, the Strahov Library acquired more than 10,500 volumes from the Library of the Prague Archdiocese. The collection developed gradually over several centuries. A significant part consists of books from the personal libraries of various archbishops. The oldest portion is the collection of the first post-Hussite Archbishop of Prague, Antonín Brus of Mohelnice (1561–1580). It contains mainly works of Catholic and Protestant theology, but also titles on philosophy, history, and classical literature. Other important contributions come from Arnošt Vojtěch of Harrach (1623–1667) and Antonín Petr Příchovský of Příchovice (1763–1793). The largest segment—approximately 6,800 volumes—comes from the library of Archbishop Jan Moric of Manderscheid-Blankenheim (1733–1763). Manderscheid found himself in a delicate political situation when, in 1741, he supported the Bavarian Elector Charles VII as King of Bohemia. As a result, he fell out of favour with Empress Maria Theresa and withdrew from public life. He devoted himself to building his personal library, which, in addition to theological works, contains books on history, natural sciences, medicine, law, art, architecture, theatre, and travel literature.
Music at Strahov
The small exhibition on musical life at Strahov is installed in the monastery’s Chapter Hall within the Joint Tour, also from the beginning of Advent 2025 until the end of January 2026 (with the more valuable exhibits on display only until the Solemnity of the Epiphany, 6 January 2026).
Music has accompanied the Strahov Premonstratensians continuously since the monastery’s foundation. From simple chant, it developed over the centuries into rich figurative and instrumental music cultivated by both religious and lay musicians. Significant figures in Strahov’s musical history include Jiří Melcelius, Jan Lohelius Öhlschlägel—whose organs were admired even by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—and Bohumír Jan Dlabač, librarian, historian, and musician of the Czech National Revival. Musical heritage is preserved primarily in the extensive archive of more than six thousand items, one of the largest in Bohemia, which includes nearly two hundred works by Mozart. The current exhibition recalls this extraordinary tradition through selected manuscripts and prints kept in the Strahov Library collections. It has been prepared on the occasion of the successful completion of the restoration of the Strahov choir organs.