The Czech National Bank Visitor Centre is inside the bank on Na Příkopě. It’s an interesting museum, where you can hold a 12.6 kilogram, solid gold bar in your hand. Entry is free.
To enter, you first need to go through an airport-security-style scanner – not surprising as there is a gold coin inside worth over US$8 million.
The ground floor level is full of interactive exhibits – most have English translations. There are also free lockers for bag and coat storage.
The best place to visit is the underground vault, still protected by the type of door that you thought only appeared in movies.
Once inside, you can see a 100 million Czech Koruna gold coin, probably worth 200 million now.
In the room behind and to the left, is a box with four holes – each big enough to put your hand inside, but not enough to remove their contents. Each section has a 4 x 11 x 2 inch bar made of wood, steel, lead and gold. You can reach in and pick up each bar – the gold bar is really heavy.
The rest of the vault, including a mezzanine floor is also interesting with safety deposit boxes…
…. a typical work desk…
…a banknote scanner…
…and more.
You could easily spend a few hours in the visitor centre. If banking and currency isn’t your thing, it’s still worth a visit to see the vault door, the coin and to hold a gold bar.
After your your visit to the bank, take a walk though the nearby Passage of Czech Design.
Czech National Bank Visitor Centre
Na Příkopě 28
115 03 Prague 1
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