National Museum
Neo-renaissance palace of domes and statues, its sandstone facade still scarred by nineteen sixty-eight gunfire.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the National Museum in Prague follows the mystery of August 21, 1968, when Warsaw Pact tanks entered Prague and machine-gun fire tore into the museum's sandstone facade, and no one ever gave a straight answer why. You'll hear the competing theories that circulated afterward, from mistaken identity with the railway station to a stray shot from inside the building. Restorers patched the damage between 1970 and 1972, though the new stone never quite matched the older sandstone around it.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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