In recent years, the National Museum has developed into a modern venue where history meets cutting-edge technology. Through virtual reality, augmented reality and digital guides, visitors can now experience history in an entirely new way.
Since 1 July 2025, a new highlight in the permanent History exhibition on the first floor has invited visitors to take a virtual journey through time. The Steps of Progress project uses VR glasses to transport visitors to a train compartment where they meet fellow travellers from different eras – from the late 19th century to the present day and a fictional future. In fictional yet thought-provoking conversations, historical figures discuss the significance of electric light, the organisation of work, and the opportunities and risks of technological progress.
Thanks to 360° videos, visitors encounter inventor František Křižík and composer Antonín Dvořák (1890), entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa and actress Olga Scheinpflugová, wife of Karel Čapek (1930), as well as scientist Jaroslav Heyrovský and actor Jan Werich (1960). These conversations are peppered with humour, irony and a certain detachment. Towards the end, two robots join in, demonstrating how views of humanity and its progress can vary greatly – human or artificial.
Steps of Progress not only offers an impressive visual experience but also invites reflection on progress, which rarely follows a linear path and is often accompanied by mistakes. It explores technologies that change us and ourselves as we try to keep pace with these changes – or perhaps even slow them down. Because humans thrive on their contradictions.
The exhibition was created in cooperation between the National Museum and the companies 3dsense, s.r.o. and R.U.R. Postproduction. It is another virtual attraction of the museum, which visitors can experience via the app Museum in Your Pocket (Muzeum v kapse).
National Museum Prague (Národní muzeum)
Václavské nám. 68, 110 00 Nové Město
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