There is no reason to lie! Even in sun generous South Moravia the sky gets a bit cloudy sometimes. The raindrops and unpleasant wind can certainly discourage one from walking and cycling through a temporarily unpicturesque landscape.
It should not be a reason for squandering your precious moments in the room of a guesthouse or hotel. It´s an ideal opportunity to visit other sights. Yes, of course , we are in South Moravia and wine cellars seem to be a good general destination, but there is another option: museums and galleries.
And maybe, you even wanted to visit some of the local cultural institutions regardless of the weather. It would not be surprising at all. Those with permanent expositions are few here, but there is a lot of interest to see: from the archaeological discoveries of ancient monuments of national formation in the territory of our country, which was called The Great Moravian Empire, to the machine equipment used not too long ago in coal-mining or oil extraction. And mining is perhaps the last thing you would expect in South Moravia. That is one more reason to get new information. As we have already mentioned above, there are plenty of museums, galleries, memorial halls etc. In Hodonínsko and Podluží. Accept our invitation to at least some of them.
You can start in Hodonín, where there is The Masaryk Museum in the baroque castle, located on the Castle Square, with an exposition dedicated to the life and the work of the fi rst Czechoslovak president, T. G. Masaryk. You can see the originals possessions of Masaryk´s or his family members, such as his popular equestrian clothing or the hammer anvil from the Čejč´s blacksmithery, where he studied. There are also facsimile manuscripts and prints of TGM, etc. There are also held here short-term exhibitions and other events, the others can be visited in the Exhibition Hall Europe, located in no. 21 on National Avenue, which is owned by the Masaryk Museum as well.
You can not miss The Art Gallery in the upper part of the long National Avenue. Visitors here, by the way, can admire the canvas of renowned painters Jožka Úprka, Alois Kalvoda, Stanislav Lolka, Vladislav Vaculka, the graphic art of Jano Kohler, Bohumír Jaronka, or the sculptures of Franta Úprka, Jakub Obrovský , Ferda Štably or the famous Olbram Zoubek. The very signifi ant masterpiece of the collection is a gypsum sculpture from August Rodin transfered to bronze. Tourist interested in technical exhibits should visit, just a couple of hundreds of meters further away, the Museum of Oil Extraction and Geology, with its historical and geological halls. The museum is situated across from the railway station and as a benchmark are used massive mining machinecs, located directly in front of the building. It would be impossible to fi nish our descriptions of museums without mentioning a tour of the Slavonic settlement in Mikulčice, the village in a deep aluvial forest. There are two expositions here. The older one offers some locally discovered artifacts which is dominated by two oak boats (monoxyly) with a length of 9 and 10 meters. The newer one is from 2008 and it is a modern museum of archaeological presentation combining elements of the spoken word, music and fi lm screenings with direct inspection of exhibits and foundations of the second Mikulčice church. If you have a need for fresh air, take a tour of the campus - of course in the indicated route. You will see the foundations of many stone building discovered here, which are now fi tted out with describing panels. The research here, albeit limited, is still in progress.
Visitors of South Slovácko into technology and technics have a further opportunity to see The Permanent Exhibition of the History of Mining and Glassmaking in Dubňany and Hodonínsko. According to its name, it‘s clear that it will be found in the young town of Dubňany. In addition to the monuments they have been collecting articles related to ethnography. If we move to the next-door village called Ratiškovice, there will be an unconventional kind of museum waiting for you, The Museum in Wagons. It is really made from two railroad waggons, and shows the history of mining industry in the area, informs about options in coal transportation to Baťa´s factories at that time. One of the options was the trailer, which you can actually try.
From Ratiškovice it is just a step to the neighboring village of Rohatec, where you can see the smallest museum in this part of Moravia. The exposition is focused on local history, ethnography and local artist´s works and it is located in a room of the former municipality.
The same situation is in Lanžhot, the village village promoted to town status a couple of year ago. Its museum has three rooms of expositions showing folk living in Podluží. From the exhibits we could note the text appointing at that time president Klement Gottwald as an honorary citizen of the village. The presidental offi ce refused this honourable offer that time. There is another permanent exposition of life in Podluží at the end of the 19th century placed southwest from Hodonín in Lužice.
It is quite similar to those one in Dolní Bojanovice and the visitors can experience the typical equipment of the rustic cottage from the 19th century and get some information about the rich history of local garbs and folk costumes.
By contrast, the Čejkovice permanent exhibition is focused on the important personality of the fi rst Czechoslovak president T.G.Masaryk, who spent here a considerable part of his childhood. Something quite unusual is that the terracotta plaque of the fi rst man of the Czechoslovak State installed on the house in the year 1933, has remeined here until now. A one of a kind Museum is also an allwood windmill ram type device from the year 1870 standing near Old Poddvorov in which the tourists operate with the old way of handling grain.
