Tourismusverband der Stadt Zadar - Stadtführer - Museen

NATIONAL MUSEUM ZADAR

MUSEUM EXHIBITION ROOMS

ZADAR CITY MUSEUM

Poljana pape Aleksandra III bb

Tel: +385 23 251 851

OPEN TO VISITORS

Winter: Monday to Friday: 9 am to 2 am, Wednesday: 9am to 12am and 5pm to 7pm

Saturday, Sunday and holidays closed.

Summer: Monday to Friday: 9am to 12am and 6pm to 9pm; Saturday: 9am to -1pm

Sunday and holidays closed

ETHNOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, City Sentinel

Narodni trg

Tel: +385 23 211 198

OPEN TO VISITORS

Winter: Monday to Saturday: 8am to 8pm; Sunday: 9am to 1pm

Closed on holidays.

Summer: Monday to Saturday: 9am to 10pm; Sunday: 9am to 1pm

Closed on holidays.

CITY LODGE, the exhibition pavilion

Narodni trg

OPEN TO VISITORS

Winter: Monday to Saturday: 8am to 8pm; Sunday: 9am to 1pm

Closed on holidays.

Summer: Monday to Saturday: 9am to 10pm; Sunday: 9am to 1pm

Closed on holidays.

THE RECTOR’S PALACE

Poljana Šime Budinića

OPEN TO VISITORS

Summer: Monday to Saturday: 10am to 10pm

Sunday: 10am to 1pm

Closed on holidays.

NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Medulićeva 2

023/314-459

OPEN TO VISITORS

Summer: Monday to Friday: 9am to 12am and 6pm to 9pm

Saturday: 9am to 1pm.

Sunday closed.

Winter: Monday to Friday: 9am to 1pm; Wednesday: 12am

to 5pm

Saturday, Sunday and holidays closed.

GALLERY OF ARTS

Medulićeva 2

Tel: +385 23 211 174

The exhibition rooms of the Gallery of Arts are closed because of renovation. Periodic exhibitions put up by the Gallery of Arts are held in the exhibition pavilion of the City Lodge and the Rector’s Palace.

NATIONAL MUSEUM ZADAR

National Museum Zadar is a general regional museum founded in 1962. Begininngs of the museum descend to the year 1832 when the first regional museum of the general type was established - Museo Nazionale. Then in 1945 new regional museum was re-established under the name of National Museum Zadar whose initial components were Natural History Department and Ethnographic Department. In 1952 theese two departments separated themselves and became independent museums – the Ethnographic Museum and the Natural History Museum. Such was the case up to 1962. when all the existing museums, except Archeological Museum, integrated into one institution - National Museum Zadar . The basic mission of today's Museum encompasses the systematic collecting, safekeeping, exhibiting, documenting and the professional and scientific processing of mobile and immobile objects of the civilizational, cultural and natural heritage that has come into being in the period since the 13^th century down to the present day. The area of interest and research is the Zadar district or, more broadly, northern Dalmatia with its islands and its immediate mainland hinterland. The Museum holds numerous collections within its four departments. A part of these valuables is presented through the permanent exhibitions of the departments and in the exhibition pavilion of the City Lodge. The Museum is a co-organizer of or host to various exhibitions staged by other institutions. Also hosts professional and scholarly conferences, cultural manifestations, concerts, book promotions, workshops and promotes its activity publishing monographs, catalogues, souvenirs and web sites.

The vision of the future of National Museum Zadar ought to be seen within the Heritage Museum which will be situated in the Rector's and Providure's palaces.

NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Natural History Department is one of the four departments of National Museum Zadar. The collecting of material and the founding of collections began in the now distant year of 1832 when Museo nazionale was founded. In 1905. the independent city Natural History Museum established, the one-time oldest museum of its type in Croatia. In 1962 the Natural History Museum was integrated into National Museum Zadar as the Natural History Department. The museum mission of today’s Natural History Department is based on the collecting, researching and presenting the flora and fauna of the broader Zadar area as well as of the other neighboring areas. Research done out in the field contributes to the creation of new collections and these alongside those which were donated or purchased make up the holdings of the Natural History Department. The exhibition-presentation activity of the department engages different themes from ecology to the problematic of protected areas using the material from the collections of the department but also by hosting exhibitions from other Croatian regions.

In 1955 the Museum received for safekeeping Domenico Pappafava’s valuable but damaged botanical collection from the beginning of 19^th century. In 1964 Blaž Cvitanović’s malacological collection with about 6100 samples, created between 1905 and 1916 in Veli rat on the northern tip of Long Island, was purchased while in 1972 Josef Grüll’s malacological collection dating from the end of the 19^thcentury and the beginning of the 20^th century with about 950 specimens was obtained. During its time don Blaž Cvitanović’s collection was considered the most valuable collection of mollusk shells of the local character on the Adriatic. Ivo Franković’s collection of fish and crabs (190 specimens) was bought step by step from 1971. to 1988. In 1990 Ante Savković’s collection of consisted mostly of moths (300 specimens) was purchased. Today the Department holds 25 collections.

ETHNOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT

Ethnological Department, one time Ethnograpic Department was founded in 1945 as a part of National Museum Zadar from 1952 to 1962. Ethnographic Department was an independent museum. The Ethnographic Department collects the objects of traditional rural culture of northern Dalmatia which is divided into the Dinara and the Adriatic area. The largest number of items were collected during the fifties and sixties. The Ethnological Department also collects photon and audio-video documentation as well as old postcards which thematically belong to the rural traditional culture of northern Dalmatia and its contacts with the city (with Zadar). Of particular interest is the film documentation which recorded different forms of handicrafts, trades and customs characteristic for northern Dalmatia. From its beginning the Ethnographic Department cooperated with the chair of ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and served as the museum and field practice for many generations of students of ethnology. The insight that one best becomes familiar with the ethno heritage through active acquisitions has inspired the Ethnological Department to organize various workshops. In 1950 the first permanent ethnographic display was set and from 1991, because of the oncoming danger of war, the permanent exhibition was dismantled and museum artifacts stored to the safer depository. Department activities commenced only after the end of the Homeland War and the ethnographic exhibit returned only in 2004 to the City Watchtower with the exhibition “Ethnological peculiarities of northern Dalmatia” which attempted to present as fully as possible the rural traditional culture of northern Dalmatia. In 1994 the Ethnographic Department changed its name and became the Ethnological Department.

GALLERY OF ARTS

Gallery of Arts was founded in 1948 nad incorporated in 1962 to the Public Museum of Zadar. It is the first institution of its kind in Zadar that is engaged in collecting, preserving and presenting artistic material for the most part dating from the 20^th century. The initial holdings of 80 works has grown through acquisitions and donations to 1.700 art objects. About 30.000 negatives of Ante Brkan’s photo-reporting opus have to be added to this number.

In its holdings the Gallery possesses works of art dating from the 17th, 18th. and 19th century, while the largest part belongs to the 20th century. The material is divided into the five collections. Since its founding the Gallery has been located in the Providur’s palace, Medulićeva 2/1.The museum-gallery mission of the Gallery includes the collection of works of art particularly from Croatia, the safekeeping of this material, researching and presenting the holdings and the activities of exhibition-presentation. Exhibition activity includes the organization of two salons that have lasted for half a century: the international exhibition of photography Man and the Sea and the triennial of contemporary Croatian Blue Salon and the Salon of Young Artists which, as well as a series of retrospective, independent and collective exhibitions of Croatian and world artists. Furthermore, the Gallery has visited other places in Croatia, it has been a co-organizer of exhibitions with other museums and has played host to exhibitions staged by other museums and galleries. The Gallery was closed in 2006 because of renovation and the exhibitions are staged only in the exhibition pavilion of the City Lodge.