Domov Palata

Domov Palata tour at the Lobkowicz Palace

Lobkowicz Palace, November 8th, 2019

On Friday the 8th of November, 2019, the Lobkowicz Palace organized a special tour of our Museum for visitors from Domov Palata (Palat’s Home). Since being founded in 1983, Domov Palata has been dedicated to providing comprehensive care to people with visual impairments, as well as trying to maintain their self-sufficiency for as long as possible. The group visited our exposition as part of a rich cultural program.

In cooperation with the Lobkowicz Collections team, we adapted our classic tour to present the Collections in a way that would ensure our visitors could experience it fully. As with most museums, our items are behind protective glass, or are unable to be touched to prevent any damage. Therefore, on top of an exquisitely detailed description of the items, we also focused on involving their other senses. Our visitors had the unique opportunity to feel by hand the chemise of the Infant Jesus of Prague statue – whose replica is in the first room of the museum. The embroidered garment mainly attracted the attention of the female members of the group, who also took great interest in comparing the differences between two rosaries, which were made of different materials.

In the Arms & Armory room, visitors had the opportunity to put on our white curator gloves to freely touch and feel two hunting rifles, as well as the flintlock mechanism. The Beethoven room was most likely the highlight of their visit to the Palace. The assistant curator of the Lobkowicz Music Archive prepared an interesting presentation, filled with short samples of compositions by the many prominent composers whose manuscripts are exhibited here. We listened to soundbites of Beethoven’s 3rd and 5th symphonies and learned a number of interesting facts about Mozart’s difficult task of modernizing Handl’s Messiah, amending it so it was more in tune with the contemporary music taste of that time.

The group, as well as their caretaker Martin Prucha, were incredibly grateful for their unique experience and we are eagerly waiting their next visit, this time at Nelahozeves Castle.