Museum sights in Croatia
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Franciscan Monastery & Museum
The 15th-century Franciscan monastery and museum overlooks a shady cove. The elegant bell tower was built in the 16th century by a well-known family of stonemasons from Korčula. The Renaissance cloister leads to a refectory containing lace, coins, nautical charts and valuable documents, such as an edition of Ptolemy's Atlas, printed in 1524. Your eye will immediately be struck by The Last Supper, an 8m by 2.5m work by the Venetian Matteo Ingoli dating from the end of the 16th century. The cypress in the cloister garden is said to be more than 300 years old.
The adjoining church, named Our Lady of Charity, contains more fine paintings such as the three polyptychs created …
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Museum Mimara
Housed in a neo-Renaissance former school building (1883), the Museum Mimara displays a diverse collection showing the loving hand of Ante Topić Mimara, a private collector who donated over 3750 priceless objects to his native Zagreb, even though he spent much of his life in Salzburg, Austria.
The collection spans a wide range of periods and regions. There is an archaeological collection with 200 items from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, Greece, Rome and early-medieval Europe; exhibits of ancient Far Eastern artworks; a glass, textile and furniture collection that spans centuries; and 1000 European art objects.
In painting, Italian artists Raphael, Veronese, Caravaggio and C…
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Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters
The Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters is a fine art museum exhibiting the collection donated to the city by the illustrious Bishop Strossmayer in 1884. The original collection was extended by subsequent donations from private collectors.
Housed on the 2nd floor of the 19th-century neo-Renaissance Croatian Academy of Arts & Sciences, the museum includes Italian masters from the 14th to 18th centuries such as G Bellini, Veronese and Tiepolo; Dutch and Flemish painters such as J Brueghel the Younger; and French artists Proudhon and Carpeaux; as well as classic Croatian artists Medulić and Benković. The interior courtyard contains the Baška Slab (Bašćanska Ploča), a stone ta…
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Ethnographic Museum
The Ethnographic Museum is worth a visit. Housed in a domed building dating from 1903, the museum contains some 70,000 items cataloguing the ethnographic heritage of Croatia. Only about 2750 exhibits are on display, including ceramics, jewellery, musical instruments, tools and weapons, as well as Croatian folk costumes, gold-embroidered scarves from Slavonia and lace from the island of Pag.
Thanks to donations from the Croatian explorers Mirko and Stevo Seljan, there are also exhibits from South America, the Congo, Ethiopia, China, Japan, New Guinea and Australia.
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Ethnographic Museum
The ethnographic heritage of Croatia is catalogued in this museum inside a domed 1903 building. Out of 70,000 items, about 2750 are on display, including ceramics, jewellery, musical instruments, tools, weapons and Croatian folk costumes, including gold-embroidered scarves from Slavonia and lace from the island of Pag. Thanks to donations from the Croatian explorers Mirko and Stevo Seljan, there are also artefacts from South America, the Congo, Ethiopia, China, Japan, New Guinea and Australia. Temporary exhibitions are often held on the 2nd floor.
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Town Museum
Even though it's a pocket-size town, there's plenty to see in Trogir. The town has retained many intact and beautiful buildings from its age of glory - between the 13th and 15th centuries. As you enter, notice the Renaissance North Gate with the statue of the town protector, St Ivan Orsini, hovering overhead. As you proceed down Kohl-Genscher, you may wish to stop in the Town Museum housed in the former Garanjin-Fanfogna palace. The five rooms exhibit books, documents, drawings and period costumes from Trogir's long history.
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City Museum
Don't miss the City Museum in the 17th-century Convent of St Clair, which is built along the eastern wall of the town. Since 1907 the convent has housed a historical museum presenting the history of Zagreb in documents, artwork and crafts, plus interactive exhibits that fascinate kids. Most interesting is a scale model of old Gradec. Summaries of the exhibits are posted in English and German in each room and evocative music accompanies your visit.
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Arts & Crafts Museum
The Arts & Crafts Museum was built between 1882 and 1892. The museum exhibits furniture, textiles, metal, ceramic and glass dating from the Middle Ages to contemporary times. You can see Gothic and baroque sculptures from northern Croatia as well as paintings, prints, bells, stoves, rings, clocks, bound books, toys, photos and industrial designs. The museum also contains an important library and there are frequent temporary exhibitions.
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Archaeological Museum
The Archaeological Museum presents archaeological finds from all over Istria. The permanent exhibits cover prehistory to the Middle Ages, but the accent is on the period from the 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD. Even if you don't visit the museum be sure to visit the large sculpture garden around it, and the Roman theatre behind. The garden is entered through 2nd-century twin gates and is often the site of concerts in the summer.
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Archaeological Museum
The Archaeological Museum displays artefacts from prehistoric to medieval times, including Egyptian mummies, with ambient sounds and light to provoke pondering. The coin collection is one of the most important in Europe, containing some 260,000 coins, medals, medallions and decorations. The courtyard has a collection of Roman monuments dating from the 5th to 4th century BC and functions as an open-air café in summer.
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Naval & Historical Museum
The Naval & Historical Museum was founded in 1876 at the height of Rijeka's shipbuilding years and gives a vivid picture of life among the seafarers. Part of the museum traces the development of sailing, with models and paintings of ships and portraits of captains. There are also various archaeological finds, weapons and documents, as well as furniture from the 17th to 20th centuries.
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Arheološki Muzej
Although it's north of the town centre, the Archaeological Museum is worth the walk. The emphasis is on the Roman and early Christian period, with exhibits devoted to burial sculpture and excavations at Salona. The quality of the sculpture is high, and there are interesting reliefs based on Illyrian mythical figures. There's also jewellery, ceramics and coins on display.
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Regional Museum
The baroque Sinčić Palace houses the Regional Museum , which opened in 1884. It contains over 2000 exhibits spanning Poreč's tumultuous history from the Palaeolithic Age until the 20th century. In addition to furniture, paintings and artefacts, there are mosaic fragments from the 3rd century, crosses, choir stalls and altar paintings.
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Muzej Grada Zagreba
The City Museum is housed in the 17th-century Convent of St Clair along the eastern wall of the town. Since 1907 it has housed a historical museum presenting the history of Zagreb in documents, artwork and crafts plus interactive exhibits that fascinate kids. Most interesting is a scale model of Gradec. Summaries of the exhibits are posted in English.
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Meštrović Gallery
Split's finest art museum is the Meštrović Gallery. You'll see a comprehensive, well-arranged collection of works by Ivan Meštrović, Croatia's premier modern sculptor, who built the gallery as a personal residence in 1931-39. Although Meštrović intended to retire here, he emigrated to the USA soon after WWII.
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Regional Museum
The Regional Museum contains a collection of 15th to 19th century paintings and works by contemporary artists in Rovinj, as well as several Etruscan pieces. Unfortunately, the small size of the museum means that only a small percentage of its collection is on display at any given time. Its opening hours are irregular in the low season.
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Croatian Museum of Naïve Art
There are over 1000 works, mainly paintings and drawings, at the Croatian Museum of Naïve Art. The most important artists in Croatia's long tradition of naïve art, including Generalić, Mraz, Virius and Smaljić are represented here, as well as international artists working in the same style.
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Croatian Natural History Museum
Try to fit in a visit to the Croatian Natural History Museum, which houses a collection of prehistoric tools and bones excavated from the Krapina cave as well as exhibits showing the evolution of animal and plant life in Croatia. Temporary exhibits often focus on specific regions, such as the island of Mljet.
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Town Museum
Town Museum. Captions are in Croatian, but wall panels in a variety of languages provide a historical framework for the exhibits. The museum has three floors, with drawings, heraldic coats of arms, 17th-century weaponry, fine furniture, coins and documents from as far back as the 14th century.
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Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum , just east of Muzejski trg, is devoted to the geology and botany of the region. In addition to a wonderful aquarium, there are also exhibits on bugs, snakes and frogs. Afterwards, you can relax in the new botanical garden with nearly 2000 native species on offer.
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Archaeological Museum
Nearby is the modern Archaeological Museum , with pottery fragments dating back to the Neolithic Age. From the Liburnian era there are bronze swords, jewellery and pottery. Also interesting is a model of Zadar as it existed in Roman times, and statues of emperors Tiberius and Augustus.
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Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments
The Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments concentrates on medieval Croatian rulers, with inscribed stone fragments, parts of altars and furniture, late medieval tombstones, swords and jewellery. Captions are in Croatian, however, which makes it difficult to identify the exhibits.
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Icon Museum
It isn't much of a museum, but it has some interesting Byzantine icons painted on wood on gold backgrounds, and 17th- and 18th-century ritual objects. Visitors are let into the beautiful old All Saints' Church (Crkva Svih Svetih) next door as a bonus.
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Technical Museum
Take your kids to the Technical Museum, which has a planetarium, steam-engine locomotives, scale models of satellites and space ships, and a replica of a mine within the building, as well as departments of agriculture, geology, energy and transport.
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Bishop's Treasury
The Bishop's Treasury, behind the tower and adjoining the Cathedral of St Stjepan, houses the cathedral treasury of silver vessels, embroidered Mass robes, numerous Madonnas, a couple of 13th-century icons and an elaborately carved sarcophagus.
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