Great Moravian Elites

Archeoskanzen Modrá, Modrá 233, 687 06 Velehrad
26. 6. – 30. 11. 2024

The opening exhibition in The Treasury of Great Moravia contains a unique set of exhibits that has been displayed only on special occasions.

It presents magnificent products of early medieval arts and crafts discovered in the graves of magnates and members of their families in the church burial grounds of the central fortified settlements of Great Moravia – in Staré Město „Na Valách“, on the Heighst of St. Methodius in Uherské Hradiště-Sady, at the 3rd church in Mikulčice and at the 1st church in Břeclav-Pohansko. One find comes from Bojná in Slovakia, the other five directly from Modrá, i. e. from the graves at the Church of St. John only 100 m away from the treasury.

The exhibited collection contains a total of 200 original objects from the 9th century and 5 new scientific reconstructions.

The exhibition was prepared by the Moravian Museum with cooperation with the municipality of Modrá, the Institute of Archeology of the Czech Akademy of Sciences, Brno, the Institute of Archeology and Museology of the Faculty of Arts/Masaryk University and the Institute of Archeology/Slovak Akademy of Sciences in Nitra.

The author of the theme, libreto and script of the exhibition is doc. PhDr. Luděk Galuška, CSc., archeologist and researcher of the Moravian Museum.

The Treasury of Great Moravia

The Treasury of Great Moravia is an extensive underground structure sensitively incorporated into the area of the archeological open-air museum. The Treasury takes a form the form of a circular space with a diameter of 20 m. It is equipped with 12 cylindrical showcases capable of protecting even the most precious artefacts on display.

The Treasury of Great Moravia was built within the framework of the cross-border project INTERREG V-A, together with the Slovak Republic, called „Common heritage from the Romans to the jewels of Great Moravia“. On the Czech side, the project was carried out by the municipality of Modrá and the expert guarantor was the Moravian Museum Brno, and on Slovak side, the municipality of Cifér in the Trnava Region, professionally cooperating with the Institute of Archeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra.