Bedřich Smetana’s Birthplace is located on the ground floor of the former castle brewery in Litomyšl. The brewery was rented from its aristocratic owner by Bedřich’s father, who moved into the staff apartment with his entire family. It was here that his long-awaited son, Bedřich, was born on March 2, 1824.
The new exhibition is located in the historically accurate environment of the Smetanas’ family apartment. The historical home interior installation and the adjoining multimedia presentation will familiarize you with the world-renowned composer’s life circumstances and most important works.
The exhibition is divided into two main sections. The first of these is the “music salon,” which offers an audiovisual musical experience. An animated film presents Smetana’s most important work in concentrated form. Here, visitors have the opportunity to sit and leisurely take in a multimedia artwork – an image projected onto the walls around them as well as this space filled with exceptional music.
The second part of the apartment provides the experience of an authentic domestic environment of the time period. The bedroom – where Bedřich Smetana was born – as well as the adjacent space have been furnished with historical furniture from the Biedermeier period.
The exhibit also includes items touched by the Smetanas. Among other things, there is a shooting target that the composer’s father, František, had painted in 1824, when he won a local shooting competition. Of Bedřich Smetana’s personal possessions, his desk is displayed here. He used it during the last twenty years of his life, and he wrote his compositions while sitting at it. In the bedroom, you can sit and listen to Bedřich Smetana’s life story, narrated by a seven-year-old boy.
History
A History of the Exhibitions at Bedřich Smetana’s Birthplace
The public was allowed into the Master’s birth chamber for the first time in July 1912. Next, in 1924, those organizing the centenary of the composer’s birth negotiated with the Litomyšl estate’s authorities for long-term access to the bedroom and the chamber; the rest of the apartment (the great room and the office) was to continue to serve the brewery’s operational needs. At the suggestion of Zdeňek Nejedlý, the rooms remained nearly empty. The only items placed inside were a marble bust of Bedřich Smetana and a memorial plaque from 1880.
In 1949, the Smetanas’ entire apartment was opened to the public. The Museum of Bedřich Smetana in Prague implemented the installation. The interior, decorated with period furniture, was supposed to invoke the atmosphere of the composer’s childhood. The piano that Smetana used when playing at the castle stood in the living room.
There were later exhibitions in 1959 and 1974 – and lastly in 1996, when the space was already under the authority of the Regional Museum in Litomyšl. The current exhibition – the sixth – was opened after general reconstruction in 2024 for the occasion of the bicentenary of the composer’s birth.
The great room with the 1949 exhibition
The bedroom in 1932 with the bust of Smetana by Otakar Španiel and the memorial plaque by František Metyš
The great room with the 1959 exhibition
The bedroom and great room after the 1996 installation
