Museum of Milevsko Masks
The Museum of Milevsko Masks is a Czech unique institution, as it is the only museum in the Czech Republic focused on the history of the local ethnographic tradition – the carnival processions.
The museum is located together with the Tourist Information Center in the beautiful Art Nouveau building No. 6 on E. Beneš Square.
Visitors can look forward to an exhibition of old masks dating back to the First Republic, period photographs, printed materials, and in the small cinema, they can watch documentary footage from carnival processions. In the photo corner, visitors can have their photo taken in a selected replica of a carnival mask. There is also an art workshop for children, where they can color their own mask or coloring pages with carnival themes. Of course, there is an abundance of various fairy-tale and real-life figures in life-size.
The museum was opened in 2017, continuing the long-standing tradition of the carnival procession in Milevsko. The town of Milevsko has been alive with the hustle and bustle of masks every year since 1862, making the Milevsko masks one of the oldest documented carnival traditions in the Czech Republic. In 2016, the record for the most masks was broken – a total of 1,248 masks participated in the carnival procession. Therefore, the Milevsko masks are currently the largest carnival procession in the Czech Republic, and this record is registered in the Czech Book of Records.
The uniqueness of the Milevsko masks is also that it is an urban carnival procession; similar traditions in other locations are mostly rural affairs. The Milevsko masks are listed in the Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Traditional Folk Culture in the Czech Republic.
Come to Milevsko, whether for the Milevsko masks or the Mask Museum, and get caught up in the cheerful carnival mood!
How to get there
The museum is located directly on the square in Milevsko, 2 minutes from the bus station and 10 minutes from the train station.
Do you know that...
...The tradition of masks in Milevsko is one of the longest urban carnival celebrations in the Czech Republic, and the procession here holds the Czech record for the number of masks.
