Ethnographic Museum Zagreb
The museum is located in a beautiful Secession-style building, formerly the Trades Hall, built in 1903. Architect Vjekoslav Bastl designed the place, and Rudolf Valdec created the statues on the front. Inside, you can see frescoes by Oton Iveković on the dome.
Founded in 1919, the Zagreb Ethnographic Museum owes its beginnings to Salamon Berger, native Slovakian textile merchant and factory owner whose gift of a large collection of folk costumes and textiles was crucial to the museum’s early years.
The museum holds around 80,000 ethnographic items representing Croatia’s Pannonian, Dinaric, and Adriatic cultural zones, though only about 2,800 are displayed.
Exhibits showcase traditional Croatian life through gold-embroidered costumes, musical instruments, furniture, tools, and reconstructed farms and rooms depicting farmers’ and fishermen’s lives.
A doll collection features traditional costumes. Separate exhibits on Kosovo during Ottoman times focus on life cycles (birth, life, death, heritage) with period-furnished rooms, traditional jewelry, costumes, pottery, weapons, and tools.
Knowledgeable English-speaking guides offer tours and further cultural insights.
The museum also houses a large collection based on non-European cultures from Latin America, Central Africa, India, Melanesia, Polynesia and Australia.
Location
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is situated on the slopes of Medvednica mountain, in the Carpathian Basin, and on the banks of the Sava river. Zagreb has a rich and diverse history, culture, and architecture that reflect its long and turbulent past.
ExploreSecession
Till the end of World War I several art movements and styles coexisted in Croatia, but all avant-garde movements were absent. That is why the greatest artworks of that period were done in the spirit of 19th-century art, including the most important examples of Vienna Secession style: the Ethnographic Museum, Zagreb in 1901, Kallina House in 1903, the National Library in 1912 were built in Zagreb, while Sulphurous Bath in 1903, and the Croatian National Theatre in 1908, were built in Split.
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