National Technical Museum

Let's pause here at this massive functionalist building near Letná Park. Construction began in 1938 under architect Milan Babuška. The National Technical Museum was completed in 1941. The timing couldn't have been worse. Nazi forces immediately commandeered the entire structure for their postal ministry the day it opened. The museum's collections were stuffed into temporary storage across town in Karlín. After the war in 1945, the museum only partially reclaimed its building. Other institutions occupied at least a third of it until 1990. It wasn't fully furnished as originally intended until 2013. That's 75 years after construction started. Inside hangs Jan Kašpar's original Blériot XI aircraft from 1911. On May 13 that year, the 28 year old aviator flew from Pardubice to Velká Chuchle in 92 minutes, covering 121 kilometers. It was the longest flight in the entire Austro Hungarian empire at the time. Kašpar had bought the plane in France and modified it himself, installing a liquid cooled four cylinder Daimler engine. He donated it to the museum in 1913, where it's been ever since. The plane was fully restored in 1966.