Dobrovice Museum

Dobrovická Muzea calls itself a museum of sugar, distilling, beet growing and the town of Dobrovice. It was opened in 2010 in a restored farmstead: the large courtyard of farm buildings was begun for the Valdštejn estates in the sixteenth century and enlarged in the following centuries. The production of sugar from beet was an important industry in the region after the invention of the process in the late eighteenth century. The nearby Thurn and Taxis Dobrovice sugar factory and distillery was founded in 1831. The museum presents the history of Czech sugar production. Visitors can see a sugar laboratory, a metre-long sugar loaf and a 5-kg sugar crystal. Another exhibition follows the distilling process and its evolution, from fruit distilleries to industrial alcohol production. Finally, the history of Dobrovická from the Bronze Age to the present is traced through archaeological finds, photographs and drawings.