Geological Exhibition

The Geological Exhibition is divided into two sections corresponding to the structure of the collections – regional and systematic.

The regional section presents a cross-section of collections relating to the geology and paleontology of Ostrava and its surroundings. This includes the Šusta collection of minerals from Ostrava and Karviná mines and Carboniferous fossils, Father Slavíček's collection with minerals and fossils from Štramberk limestone, and the collection of semi-precious stones from Hončova hůrka near Příbor assembled by Josef Valášek.

The formation of the geological collection fund is closely linked to the activities of the Natural Science Society. The Mineralogical-Geological Section began its work in 1923; its founder and first director was Dr. Václav Šusta. In 1928, the society purchased – and later donated to the museum – collections of minerals and rocks from Olomouc naturalist Jindřích Laus and František Langer from Branná, which became the foundation of the systematic part of the mineralogical-petrographic collections. In 1933, Dr. Václav Šusta donated to the museum a large part of his collection of minerals, rocks and fossils primarily from the Ostrava region (over 3,000 pieces); after his death in 1953, all his lifetime collections were transferred to the museum's holdings.

The paleontological collection gathers material from more than eighty years, beginning in 1921, when Václav Šusta started as a mining engineer at the František and Hlubina mines in Karviná. His collections come primarily from mines in the Karviná region and are dominated by flora. Carboniferous fauna from exploration boreholes and mines in the Czech part of the Upper Silesian Basin was collected between 1954–1990 by František and Milada Řehořovi; the flora collection from the same period was assembled by Eva Purkyňová. The entire paleontological collection today comprises approximately 22,000 samples; its rarest part consists of a collection of 148 holotypes of flora and fauna from productive Carboniferous – fossils described as the first of their kind.

The mineralogical-petrographic collection fund includes more than 5,000 pieces of minerals and rocks and consists of systematic and regional sections. The regional collection also includes a collection of polished semi-precious stones from Hončova hůrka.