Zagreb City Museum – former Poor Clares’ Monastery

Museum

The Zagreb City Museum was founded by the Brethren of the Croatian Dragon Society in 1907. In the ninetieth year of its existence, 1997, the Museum opened what was only its sixth permanent exhibition, for the first time in restored and appropriate premises, making use of the state of the art in contemporary museum technology.

The exhibition shows the past of the City of Zagreb, from prehistory, traces of which were recently uncovered under the museum’s building, to the present day.

The permanent exhibition gives a portrait of the city in all of its aspects, showing it in the light of politics, the church, history, economics and business, town-planning and architecture, the history of art and literature, entertainment, and everyday life.

The permanent exhibition is built around the objects that the Museum possesses. A modern approach to the creation and visualization of the life of the city has led us to link the objects with the social context in which they once had their being. Wherever it has been possible, we have endeavored to support the historicity of the theme by some authentic document.

The building the Museum occupies was once the Convent of the Poor Clares (1650) and is itself a historical monument of great importance.

Monastery

In 1212, St. Clare of Assisi founded the order of Franciscan nuns – the Poor Clares.

In 1646 a number of them came to Zagreb from Bratislava and founded their convent on Gradec. The town council gave them the piece of land adjoining Popov Tower, where a large building that followed the line of the medieval defense walls was erected. On the west side it formed a new street, which was later named Opatička vulica (Nuns’ Street). With generous support by the Croatian nobility, notably Count Gašpar Drašković, they moved into the new convent in June 1650. Most of the nuns came from Croatian aristocratic families, the Zrinskis, Drašković, Patačić, Keglević, Oršić and others, who brought with them a dowry, mostly money, so that the convent soon acquired numerous estates and cash. The nuns even engaged in money lending, which became their main source of revenue.

The strict rules of their order forbade the nuns to go out of the convent; their life was austere and dedicated to contemplation.

The nuns ran a private girls’ school, in which they taught, among other subjects, singing and music. They promoted the Croatian language, using it in almost all of their documents and letters.

The rich spiritual life of the convent came to an end on 28th February 1782, when Emperor Joseph II decreed the cessation of the order of the Poor Clares.

Text: ZCM – Nada Premerl