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Metelka mechanical nativity scene
Metelka mechanical nativity scene

The mechanical nativity scene made by Václav Metelka from Sklenařice near Vysoké nad Jizerou serves as a unique evidence of the crèche making tradition in the western part of the Giant Mountains (Krkonoše). It was made by Jáchym Metelka (1825–1902) followed by his son Václav (1866–1954).

 

Jáchym Metelka started building the moving nativity scene using paper-cut figures and a paper background – which is still used today (having been painted over a number of times) as the Bethlehem skyline. For fifty years, the family’s home nativity scene was growing in size alongside the walls of the living room. Václav started gradually replacing the paper-cut figures with wood-carved ones and following his father’s death he transformed the crèche into what it looks like today.
The crèche is three and a half meters wide, with 250 wood-carved figures, of which more than one third can move. The all-wood mechanism was originally weight-driven, and later the bob was replaced by an electric motor. It became a part of the North Bohemian Museum’s collection in 1967 thanks to Václav Metelka (1924–2005), named after his grandfather.

Jáchym Metelka started building the moving nativity scene using paper-cut figures and a paper background – which is still used today (having been painted over a number of times) as the Bethlehem skyline. For fifty years, the family’s home nativity scene was growing in size alongside the walls of the living room. Václav started gradually replacing the paper-cut figures with wood-carved ones and following his father’s death he transformed the crèche into what it looks like today.

 

The crèche is three and a half meters wide, with 250 wood-carved figures, of which more than one third can move. The all-wood mechanism was originally weight-driven, and later the bob was replaced by an electric motor. It became a part of the North Bohemian Museum’s collection in 1967 thanks to Václav Metelka (1924–2005), named after his grandfather.