A walk through Prague in February 1948
The Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century has prepared the first virtual tour route through Prague in February 1948 in cooperation with the Czech startup SmartGuide. At a time when much of the normal activities are currently limited by the restrictions adopted in connection with the pandemic, it will be possible to combine historical events with specific places of memory.
Through the SmartGuide app, visitors will gain a basic understanding of what was involved and how the political crisis of February 1948, culminating in the Communist takeover, was a major turning point. At the locations where important events took place, they will receive a basic explanation from a historian-guide. In this way, historical events will be linked to the places and personal stories associated with the location. In the case of Prague in February 1948, visitors will find themselves in the whirlwind of events in Old Town Square, the Municipal House or Wenceslas Square. Basic facts will be recalled, from the circumstances of the resignation of ministers to the explanation of the Communist pressure actions to the march of Prague students in support of President Edvard Beneš.
"Our upcoming virtual tours will bring another great advantage in the future. You will be able to visit places or interiors that are not accessible to the public. We would like our walks through historical places to be a way to deeper knowledge of our past for the widest possible spectrum of curious citizens," said Jan Kalous, head of the museum's historical education department , about the virtual tour.
"The Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century wants to continue to expand its offer of thematic walks in the future in cooperation with the SmartGuide startup. This will be followed, for example, by a trail connected with the fate of Milada Horáková and the footsteps of political prisoners," added Jiří Šesták, the museum's director.
The tour route for February 1948 is published together with the tour route 17 November 1989 - Thanks for letting us celebrate 17 November. The Czech SmartGuide app, in cooperation with the Thanks for the Can initiative, will guide users through the entire route taken by students in 1989 and will bring the events of that day to life through a multimedia guide. The digital guide will allow people to walk the commemorative route even during the pandemic - virtually.
The SmartGuide app is a digital guide for the 21st century. It guides the user in real time, automatically telling them engaging stories about the places they are passing through and highlighting points of interest in the area. It uses augmented reality and audio to immerse the user in the story of the destination. It can be used to explore new places and discover the uncharted in your own neighbourhood.
Since August 2020, SmartGuide has added more than three dozen destinations for users to visit. These include the castle gardens of Lednice, Průhonice, Hradec Králové, Olomouc, Litomyšl, Český Krumlov, Prague, Brno and Poděbrady. The app is also the official guide to the town of Terezín or the Plzeň Zoo.
The SmartGuide platform provides a space for collaboration for all tourism operators, museums, zoos, castles and chateaus as well as agencies and projects like Thanks for the Can. The app has been available as a free download since 2017, and in the past has focused mainly on destinations abroad. With the advent of the coronavirus crisis, it is trying to help in the Czech Republic. The project has expanded its scope and has also started to operate thanks to support from the Czech Rise Up programme administered by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Chamber of Commerce provided patronage for the digitisation of tourism through SmartGuide.
Media contact for SmartGuide:
Václav Jurčíček
E-mail: vaclav@smart-guide.org
Media contact for the Museum of Memory of the 20th Century:
PhDr. Jan Kalous, Ph.D.
E-mail: kalous@muzum20stoleti.cz