The Museum of Nativity Scenes in Třebechovice

The Museum of Nativity Scenes  in Třebechovice is a professional workplace specializing in documentation of static and mechanic cribs. The museum is the only institution of its kind in the Czech Republic. Currently it administrates the town collections and the collection of cribs.

The most valuable object of the town’s collections is illuminated Man of Letters’ Gradual from 1559. The collection of nativity scenes creates more than three hundred cribs made of numerous materials, originating from various parts of the Czech Republic. The most valuable one is a mechanical crib, which was declared a national cultural heritage site in 1999.

The nativity scene of Třebechovice is a unique work of a peasant Josef Probošt (1849-1926), a woodcarver Josef Kapucián (1841-1908) and a woodworker  Josef Friml (1861-1946).

The whole crib including the mechanism was made of wood more than one hundred years ago. Dimensions: length 6.9 m, height 2.2 m, depth 1.9m, weight 1.2 t not including the chassis. It consists of more than 2000 carved pieces.

The crib was also shown abroad in 1967 on the world exhibition of EXPO in Montreal, a year after in a Dutch miniature’s town of Madurodam and in 1970 it was presented in London on Ideal Home Show exhibition, where the British Queen Elisabeth saw it.