The classical archaeology was founded at the Charles University by Professor Otto Benndorf in 1871. Among his followers at the German university was particularly Wilhelm Klein. The collection of plaster casts was part of the institute from its inception and both Benndorf and Klein greatly contributed to it during their tenure. After the university was split into the German and Czech school in 1883, the first professor of Classical Archaeology at the Czech university was Miroslav Tyrš. After his death the institute was headed by Hynek Vysoký and later by Jindřich Čadík and Růžena Vacková. Both suffered imprisonment during the Second World War and then again by the communist regime. Among other important figures of classical archaeology in the interwar period Czechoslovakia we must mention Antonín Salač. In the 1950s the Institute was merged with the Department of Classical Philology and Ancient History, creating Department of Classical Antiquity. In the beginning of the 1990s the Institute was established anew. The classical archaeology at the Charles University has long tradition and the Institute educated many top researchers who made name for themselves at home and abroad (e.g. Jiří Frel).