Built in neo-renaissance style in 1891, the building underwent significant restoration from 2011 to 2018 to mark the centennial of the Czech and Czechoslovak declaration of independence.

[5] Even before the French Revolution, some royal and private collections of art, science and culturally relevant items were made available to the public.

The beginnings of the museum can be seen as far back as 1796 when the private Society of Patriotic Friends of the Arts was founded by Count Casper Sternberk-Manderschied and a group of other prominent nobles.

Serving as historian and secretary of the National Museum in 1841, František Palacký tried to balance natural science and history, as he described in his Treatise of 1841.

[citation needed] However, it was not until nearly a century later that the National Museum's historical treasures equaled its collection of natural science artifacts.

However, the National Museum was created to serve all the inhabitants of the land, lifting the stranglehold the nobility had had on knowledge.

This was further accelerated by the historian František Palacký, who in 1827 suggested that the museum publish separate journals in German and Czech.

During the 1968 Warsaw Pact intervention, the main facade was severely damaged by strong Soviet machine-gun and automatic submachine-gun fire.

The shots made numerous holes in sandstone pillars and plaster, destroyed stone statues and reliefs, and also caused damage in some of the depositories.

The opening of the North-South Highway in 1978 on two sides of the building resulted in the museum being cut off from city infrastructure.

The building was extended in 1968–1973 for meetings of the Federal Assembly (parliament), the bridge girder was used there and at that time it was the largest hung glass wall in Czechoslovakia.

[9] The medieval collection includes jewelry, panel painting, wooden sculpture, and weapons (also such as used in the Hussite movement of the 15th century).

Examples of precious objects include: a silver tiara of a duke from the twelfth century; Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque jewelry; liturgical objects from the Medieval period, which include several chalices, the reliquary of St Eligius in the shape of mitre; Gothic and Renaissance glazed tiles and paving stones; precious embroidery of Rosenberg antependium dated about 1370; and fine Bohemian porcelain and glass collection from before the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as collections of painted portraits and miniature painting.