Plans

The holdings of the Documentation Department also include a collection of plans. As is the case with the collections of prints and historical photographs, a major part of the collection consists of materials bequeathed by the art historian Zdeněk Wirth.

At present, the collection is divided into two sections. The older section contains all the plans from the period before the First World War. The majority of them were made for the 52 volumes of inventories of movable and immovable monuments organised by the Archaeological Commission of the Czech Academy for Science, Art and Literature. Most of the plans in the newer section were made in the second half of the 20th century as documentary material for the Umělecké památky Čech, Prahy a Moravy [Artistic Heritage of Bohemia, Prague, and Moravia] (topography).

At present there are 9822 items in the records of the collection. Both sections include plans of locations from both in Prague and outside of it.

One of the reasons for the importance of the collection is the large number of historical plans dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of them are the work of leading Baroque architects and builders. At present the collection of plans is closed. It is planned to review it and draw up a new inventory in newly adapted premises in the depository for historical collections.

Curator: PhDr. Martin Krummholz, krummholz.at.udu.cas.cz