The Bronze Beauty from Kladina

About this event

The centrepiece is the Kladina situla, a roughly 60 cm tall bronze vessel from the 10th–9th century BC discovered in eastern Bohemia in 2017. Analysis of the residues inside revealed that it once held a beer-like drink or millet-and-herb gruel — the oldest direct evidence of a beer offering in Central Europe. The exhibition presents a faithful replica of the vessel and explores the social, religious and craft practices of the late Bronze and early Iron Age. Visitors learn how communal feasting, burial rituals, and the deliberate deposition of precious bronze vessels shaped the cultural life of that period. The exhibition is a collaboration with the East Bohemian Museum in Pardubice and the Romano-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute, and is part of the Year of Czech Culture marking the Czech Republic’s guest-of-honour appearance at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2026. At the opening and on 7 October, the Pardubická muzika brass band will perform traditional folk songs from the Pardubice region.

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