Museum of winter sports, tourism and crafts in Deštné in the Orlické Mountains

In the middle of village Deštné in the Orlické Mountains, close to a church of St. Mary Magdalene, the architectural jewel of J.B. Santini Aichel, you will find an interesting designed museum.

All exhibits come from donations of local residents and citizens living in the Orlické Mountains and in close foothills. An entry exposure brings ancient history of the village, even from the time of Charles IV. Small Slavin presents important personalities, who were born or worked here. An exposure of crafts shows woodcarvers, manufacturers of wooden boxes, potters, coopers, charcoal burner, who burned charcoal in a pile, dyers of cloth, masons, stove builders, manufacturers of shingles, bricks from sawdust and lime, and others.

On the first floor is located a large collection of objects from the history of winter sports. It contains ancient snowshoes, long and wide skis with long spokes, with wicker binding and one ski stick, ski equipment, transport and sport sled of all kinds. In addition it documents many years of active and beneficial preventive and rescue work of the Mountain Rescue Service and successful racing and representational ski and skibob activities, modern races of motoskjering, races on scooters and races of dog-team.

Another large room includes two exposures. The first is devoted to hand textile manufacture of linen and cotton, to garments, worn by local highlanders, netting, knitting stockings and more. The second exhibition is focused on a glass industry in the Orlické Mountains. It is conceived as a research laboratory in the history of glass, showing the results of over twenty-year scholarly works, including a five-year archaeological research at the defunct glassworks, situated on an edge of the Orlické Mountains at 940 m above sea level.

In a basement area there is a new exposure Mills on the Gold Creek , which attracts children with a water sprite sitting on a sluice.

Another exhibition shows the evolution of laundry, from wooden battledores through iron-plate washtubs with wash-boards, to mechanical washing machines with a manual mangle. It complements a collection of ironers and wardrobe hangers and a butter production.

In a garden area visitors can see a small glass furnace for melting glass with timber. Every year an experimental melting and shaping of glass takes place at the first weekend in August here.

Opening hours of the museum: every day except Monday till 5 pm.