A new salt museum was recently opened as addition to Nin salt evaporation pond .

The museum offers a complete insight into the extraction of salt, which follows the same tradition as in Roman times.

The sea water naturally falls through the pools of the ponds where it evaporates with the help of sun and wind and eventually crystallizes into pure natural sea salt.

Nin’s Salt Evaporation Pond dates back from Roman times and covers  about 55 acres of Nin bay where locals are still producing a wide range salt products such as industrial and therapeutic salt.

Due to traditional production, unpolluted sea water and specific environment conditions including the number of sunny hours per year, salt from Nin is of a very high quality.

Have a look at the short video about Solana Nin:

More info @ Nin Tourist Board: www.nin.hr

It shows a bit of so called Jadranska Magistrala, the road that run along the Adriatic Sea , in direction of West with sun shining over the horizon.

The broshure was published by Turisticki Savez Hrvatske (Croatia Tourist Board) and printed in 1966 by Graficki Zavod Hrvatske , from Zagreb.

Click on left image to enlarge this cute 44 year old graphic gem and see more great retro images in our Photo Gallery of History of Croatian Tourism

The museums that are participating are in following places : Biograd na Moru, Bjelovar, Čakovec, Dubrovnik, Đakovo, Gornja Stubica, Gospić, Karlovac, Kastav, Kaštel Lukšić, Klis, Koprivnica, Krapina, Makarska, Opatija, Osijek, Požega, Pula, Rijeka, Samobor, Sisak, Slavonski Brod, Split, Šibenik, Trakošćan, Umag, Vid (Metković), Virovitica, Vukovar, Zadar and Zagreb.

All participating museums offer entry free of charge.

Click here to download the programme of the Night of Museums and visit Croatian Museums website : www.hrmud.hr

Update: Museum Night marks record in number of visits

Museum Night, an event organised annually and throughout Croatia which offers free entry into museums and galleries from 6 pm to 1 am, saw a record in the number of visits. Some 140,000 people visited museums and galleries in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, Rijeka, Osijek and Split on the 4th Museum Night organised on Friday. Of the 20 museums in Zagreb, the Technical Museum in Zagreb registered a record 16,584; in Rijeka 13,148 people visited the local museums, in Osijek 8,519 and in Split 10,270. The event was supplemented with additional contents – concerts, lectures and performances; in Zagreb with a fireworks display.

This convertible van , model ‘Tourist’ 1000 was produced in 1960′s by IMV (Industrija Motornih Vozil) which was a car manufacturer based in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, established in 1954.

The van looks similar to well known Volkswagen Van that was very popular at the time (even my father had one of these).

The above image is a scan of IMVs broshure from 1964 (click on image to see large photo).

Click here to see non convertible version of the same model + check other old photos and broshures  of other vintage means of travel

The permanent exhibition of Dubrovnik’s tourism history will have on display old photos, postcards and souvenirs of Dubrovnik as well as variety of documentary photographs of famous people visiting Dubrovnik at the start of last century, vintage Dubrovnik tourism and hotel brochures and other promotional material and artefacts used in Dubrovnik hotels in the last century.

The exhibition venues will be the foyer of cinema ‘Sloboda’ – near Onofrijeva Fountain and at Gradska Kafana – a popular Dubrovnik’s cafe. Both venues are located in the very centre of the Dubrovnik Old Town – at the Stradun promenade.

Shame that we couldn’t find the exact date of the opening of this exhibition  so, in the meantime, while we work out the dates, have a look at our ‘permanent’ on-line exhibition of history of tourism in Dubrovnik and further: 

• Vintage Luggage Labels of Croatian Hotels – includes Dubrovnik Hotels
• Old Photos of Dubrovnik
• Dubrovnik at Ralley Adriatique 1952
• Hotel Lapad Dubrovnik Luggage Label
• Hotel Komodor Dubrovnik Luggage Label
• Holidaying in Croatia in 1960′s  + more history of Croatian Tourism

The installation of a large apochromatic telescope, worth about 37 thousand euro, lasted almost five months so that the news that the telescope in now functional will likely delight many space lovers and other citizens and visitors to the city of Zagreb who will now have an opportunity to even more enjoy a view of the expanses of space.

The entire structure of the old telescope has been replaced with a new column installed in its place mounting three telescopes that together form the necessary integral parts of a modern telescope.

The main apochromatic telescope is used for visual observation of objects in space and the Sun in white light and for intermittent photographing.

The old Zeiss 130/1950 mm telescope has been mounted in parallel and will, after the acquisition of the needed equipment, be use to photograph the sun in the H-alpha line. The third telescope, a Coronado PST H-alpha 40/400 mm, is installed next to the main telescope and is used for visual observation of the sun in the H-alpha line.

Along with the cited equipment the observatory has also acquired a TeleVue Nagler type 5 eyepiece with a focal depth of 26 mm, a Nagler type 6 with a focal depth of 13 mm and a Radian with a focal depth of 6 mm. Also here is a 2 inch Herchel Solar prism for direct visual observation of the sun in white light and a 2 inch Baader UHC-S.

Besides the new telescope the Zagreb Astronomical Observatory, dating from the year 1903, is as of this autumn also richer for a new cosmic radiation detector that came as a gift from Armenia.

And that’s not all – with the aim of better informing the general public, students, professors and other astronomy buffs, the people at the Zagreb Astronomical Observatory have restructured and revamped their Internet site(www.zvjezdarnica.hr).

Starting with a much better layout on the pages new content has been added on the history of the Observatory (history, popularisation, education, science, publishing and more), a photo gallery, weather forecasts and surveys.

The new site should present visitors a better overview of the popularization and education work of the Observatory and one of the important novelties is the publication of an Observatory newsletter with the help of which all those interested will have an opportunity, via their e-mail, to follow all of the important ongoing data and news on events at the Observatory (lectures, courses, observation and more).

More info about Zagreb,  Astronomic Observatory in Zagreb and Zagreb Tourist Board: http://www.zagreb-touristinfo.hr/

The Primošten Arboretum will feature the significant traditional flora of Dalmatia – about 20 old species of grape vine, olives, fields of lavender, conifers and other varied Mediterranean flora, as well as plants from other parts of the world that are adaptable to Croatian climate.

Especially attractive for visitors will be the range of summer fruits, citrus fruits in particular and various types of bamboo.

In the midst of this islet there are still the remains of old stone houses and bunja (simple, elementary structures) and an arboretum, unlike parks and botanical gardens, always includes the construction of accompanying buildings.

There will be no other structures on the island. That means that the islet will remain uninhabited and the only structures it will have is the arboretum.

http://www.tz-primosten.hr/

Sibenik , recently saw the first tourist visit to the attractive medieval gardens of the Sveti Lovro monastery, in the area of the monastery closed to the public. This has revived an important part of Sibenik’s history and given it a new dimension in both education and tourism.

The gardens were recently completely revamped, with the pupils of Sibenik’s First Private Secondary School taking part in its renewal. The renovation project, following the well known scheme of medieval monastery gardens, is the work of well-known Croatian landscape architect Dragutin Kiš.

The Sveti Lovro monastery gardens cover an area of 600 square metres with a cruciform path having a well at its hub, a field hedged with boxwood, and cypress trees at the edges of the fields, old rose varieties, citrus fruits and figs on the edges with spices and medicinal herbs in the fields and capers on the surrounding rocks.

With the Mediterranean monastery gardens Šibenik is richer for a rare tourism and cultural point of interest, all the more as this is the town in which Robert Visiani, one of the best known 19th century botanists in Europe was born, himself a renovator of one of the best known botanical gardens in Europe.

The studio, part of the effort to make Nikola Tesla a recognizable brand in his native Croatia, is based on the reconstruction of the best-known inventions created by this great scientist following his original drawings and patent submissions, using, for the most part, methods and materials available during Tesla’s time.

The reconstructed studio, the fruit of a two-year labour, has received a more dynamic and modern appearance, and various multimedia content bring the life and work of Nikola Tesla closer to the visitor. A ninety-seat auditorium divides the visitors’ area into three sections that depict the childhood, education, life and work in America and the medals and recognitions received by the genius.

The studio exhibits are situated on mobile pedestals and are moved to the central section where experiments are demonstrated for visitors every day.

Along with the Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre, opened in 2006 in Smiljan, the village in which Tesla was born in, the Demonstration studio at the Zagreb Technical Museum is yet another sign that Croatians are very proud of Tesla and his work and will not allow his homeland to forget the man who “invented the twentieth century.”

The Technical Museum will join most museums in Croatia in the Night of the Museums event scheduled for late January, an event that has been staged in many European cities and in which museums open their doors to late into the night and stage elaborate programs.

More info at mdc.hr/tehnicki + about Zagreb

This unique exhibition brings together a collection of artifacts from the monasteries and churches of the Dominicans in Croatia.

The selection of exhibitis includes paintings by old masters Tintoretto, Tizian, Jacopo Palma Jr, Nikola Bozidarevic, Blaz Jurjev Trogiranin and Vlaho Bukovac as well as variety of  illuminated manuscripts and codices, decorated clothing, liturgical silverware, votive jewelry etc..

Dominican monasteries in Croatia are located in Korcula, Dubrovnik, Trogir, island of Brac,  island of Hvar, Split , Zagreb and Rijeka. Some of them (Dubrovnik and Brac) have well organized collections of arts.

The exhibition ‘Dominicans in Croatia’ will remain open until end of March 2008.    

More info on Dominicans in Croatia at www.dominikanci.hr (Croatian Only)

Small collection of old hotel labels from Croatia are uploaded in Croatia Old Photos gallery - images include :

• Grand Hotel Slavija Bellevue Opatija,
• Hotel Borik Zadar ,
• Hotel Central Opatija ,
• Hotel Central Zagreb,
• Hotel Esplanade Zagreb ,
• Hotel Esplanade Zagreb ,
• Hotel Kontinental Rijeka ,
• Hotel Kuljevan Lopud ,
• Hotel Kvarner Opatija ,
• Hotel Marina Moscenicka Draga ,
• Hotel Marjan Split ,
• Hotel Mlini Dubrovnik ,
• Hotel Plitvice ,
• Hotel Pracat – Lopud ,
• Hotel Therapia Crikvenica ,
• Hotel Zagreb Esplanade Opatija ,
• Motel Zurkovo Rijeka ,
• Opatija Dom Odmora Otokar Kersovani

More info on Hotels in Croatia + History of Travel in Croatia

The exhibition of painter Marc Chagall will be open in Zagreb gallery Klovicevi Dvori from 13 December 2007 to 16 March 2008.

The exhibition will spread in twelve rooms of the gallery and will feature about 250 of his best oil paintings, prints, illustrations, drawings, lithographs, collages, sculptures and textiles.

It will present the most important topics of his work - religion and romance, circus, surrealist as well as graphic art including hand colored illustrations for La Fontaine’s Fables.

Chagall’s works that we will be presented in Zagreb come from the Biblical Message Museum in Nice, and the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris.

The curator of the Zagreb exhibition is Jean Michel Foray – recent director of Chagall’s Museum in Nice.

The Klovićevi Dvori Gallery has also prepared a number of accompanying events (childrens’ art workshops, lectures).

The museum shop will stock a range of Marc Chagall themed gifts and souvenirs.

The exhibition is opened Tuesdays to Sundays 10am to 8pm.

Not to be missed!

The castle Veliki Tabor, located in the Hrvatsko zagorje region, is numbered among the most attractive and best-preserved monuments of medieval fortification architecture in Croatia.

Veliki Tabor is one of Castles of Croatia  – a fortified medieval aristocratic hilltop burg situated in the northwestern part of the Hrvatsko zagorje in the municipality of Desinic.

More than two years of work on its reconstruction and protection has seen the renovation of the portico, gallery and the five-cornered tower.

The oldest sections of this top-category cultural monument date from the 12th century, while its current appearance dates from the 19th century. The castle was owned by many prominent Croatian families, such as the Counts Celjski, and it was after their possession that the unhappy legend of Veronika Desinicka emerged.

The castle covers over 3,000 square metres of floor space and its interior contains, among other things, galleries adorned with circular columns, a court chapel, a wine cellar with a large winepress, a large well and the most attractive part of Veliki Tabor – the grand rustic hall.

The castle houses many collections, such as those featuring old vehicles and pottery, and a well stocked ethnographic collection. A visual arts gallery, a presentation of the first medications factory, presentations of fencing, musketeers and the armour of the “wretched knight” are only a few of the fascinating exhibits in this engrossing museum and excursion grounds in the Hrvatsko zagorje.

More info : Large Photo of Veliki Tabor Castle + Castles of Croatia +  Guide to Hrvatsko Zagorje + Municipality of Desinic web : www.desinic.hr + Krapina-Zagorje County Tourist Board web : www.tz-zagorje.hr & Krapinske Toplice Hotels

The museum is located in the premises of the existing oil making facility, constructed in the 1950’s. Old machines, photographs and olive products, from oil to the ever more popular olive soap, are for the moment exhibited in one room in which olives will be processed during the harvest.

During the tourist season it serves as info-point of the Tourist Board of the nearby town of Supetar and the village of Mirca.

Mirca is a settlement in which only some 300 people live, predominantly farmers, fishermen and those involved in tourism. The village’s name suggests a peaceful vacation (“mir” means peace) one can find on the beautiful beaches or among the old stone houses with their stone-paved yards located in the upper part of the village.

There are currently seven olive pressing facilities on the island of Brac that can daily process about 200 thousand olives.

The olive oil producers of the island of Brac have earned numerous awards over the past years for environmentally friendly growing and the production of extra virgin oil of the highest quality.

Photos of Croatia Fruit and Veg + Food and Wine of Croatia

More info at Supetar Tourist Board web http://www.supetar.hr/

Opatija has become the home of the Croatian Museum of Tourism.

This newly opened Museum is housed in the Villa Angiolina that contains permanent as well as temporary exhibitions.

The first floor of the Villa Angiolina features a two-part permanent exhibition.

One is dedicated to Opatija as the cradle of Croatian tourism, while the second part offers an overview of the history of tourism in Croatia. It has all been presented with settings, documents, old photos, postcards and other exhibits.

The staircase features the story of the Villa Angiolina itself, the first villa in Opatija, while the ground floor has retained its current function.

The Museum of Tourism of Croatia also collects data on all relevant sources and potential museum exhibits, and the goal of the institution is to create a system for the evaluation of museum material and the creation of a database.

The museum is also the reference centre for the logging of data on tourism related museum material.

“Peek and Poke” is the name of the latest museum opened in Rijeka. This newly opened museum of computers and calculators is the first of its kind in this part of Europe.

The people who conceived this museum actually like to say that it is in fact a retro computer club with a permanent exhibition in which those interested can come into contact with the earliest examples of the technological industry.

And this is why this retro computer club also has an educational role as many young people can find out how work was done on computers in the not-so-recent past.

There are many old specimens at the Peek and Poke club such as the Apple II model at which the older generation gained their first computer knowledge and skills. A special focus was given at the museum to Croatian-produced models such as the Galeb, manufactured in Varaždin in the mid 1980s. Also presented is the Orao model, which was in those years a typical classroom PC in Croatia.

The museum currently features about a thousand exhibits – computers and calculators with a fair number of surprises among them. One of these is certainly a computer produced by the Phillips Company that years ago won a NASA sponsored competition on the occasion of the launching of the Space Shuttle, and that has the form of an astronaut’s helmet with visor.

Among the most valuable models are the Interact manufactured in 1978 and the Hektor, built by students from a British university (of which little else is known), and we should certainly mention a model identical to the one that Andy Warhol used when producing his computer portrait of pop singer Debbie Harry.

More info about Rijeka + City of Rijeka Tourist Board http://www.tz-rijeka.hr/

After the opening of the Ružic Gallery, revival of scenes from the history of the Tvrdava (fortress) and opening of a traditional blacksmith’s workshop, Slavonski Brod got yet for another interesting facility – Tamburitza Museum, located within the Tvrdava.

This is a unique project given that nowhere in Croatia to date has a similar museum been opened which is dedicated only to this recognisable musical symbol of Slavonia.

The museum presents the hundred year old history of the Tamburitza in Slavonski Brod and the whole Slavonski Brod- Posavina County and displays a series of very valuable exhibits like a tamburitza from 1920 and handwritten notes for a tamburitza orchestra which were written back in 1912.

There are also classical exhibits and old photographs as well as organised workshops for visitors to see the process of making this traditional musical instrument.

The museum is located in the Kapelan apartment of the Tvrdava, right next to the Tourist-information centre of Slavonski Brod ( Slavonski Brod Tourist Board http://www.tzgsb.hr/ )

More about tamburica at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamburitza

The newly built Museum of Archaeology “Narona” in Vid near Metkovic, Croatia located at the large archaeological site of antique statues of the Sanctuary Augusteum has been opened last weekend.

The site of the museum was home of Augusteum, the temple of Emperor Augustus from 1st century AD,  where archaeologists found 16 statutes of Emperor Augustus, members of his family, and other Roman high officials and deities.

The remnants of the city of antiquity Narona have been found in the area surrounding the village of Vid, 3 kilometres from Metkovic. Narona was a Roman colony and emporium and its massive wealth based on trade. These are the most precious remains of historical heritage in this area. Archaeological digs from 1995 and 1996 provided epochal results, with the discovery of Augusteum, the temple consecrated to the divinized Augustus (16 monumental figures), making this site one of the most significant archaeological sites outside of Rome.

Over the past decade, a permanent archaeological collection has been set up, archaeological research on the early Christian basilica at the site of the Chapel of St. Vid has been conducted, archaeological research and conservation of the early Christian basilica and the ruins of Roman villa rustica (country homes) at Bare conducted, research on the city walls of Gornji grad (the upper town) completed, and research on the city walls of Donji grad (the lower town) started, including research on the settlement which preceded the Roman Narona, with ruins found under the level of the forum. (Source:  http://www.visitdubrovnik.hr/attractions/index.php?menu=58&id=59)

More about archaeological and architectural aspects of Narona is here http://www.vid.hr/prijevodi/narona-engleski.htm + Narona Photo Gallery : http://www.visitdubrovnik.hr/attractions/index.php?menu=582&id=59

“The unnamed oil on canvas painting”, wites Telegraph,  ”showing five women and a little girl from Scheweningen in the Netherlands in a forest, is signed Vincent in one corner. “

Telegraph contunues : “It was found by experts looking through the uncatalogued collection that has been stored at the Mimara Museum in the Croatian capital Zagreb for the past two decades.
Museum spokesman Darko Glavan said Dutch art expert John Sillevis had confirmed the painting was an authentic work by Vincent Van Gogh probably painted in 1882. Mr Glavan said the museum was still carrying out tests on the painting before making an official announcement.”

Muzej Mimara (Museum Mimara) , located at Roosveltov trg 5 in Zagreb, the Croatian capital has the permanent display of the art collection of Ante and Wiltrud Topić Mimara donated to Croatia. Museum is housed in an 1883 neo-Renaissance former school building, the 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.

The Batana House Museum is dedicated to the fishing boat known as the Batana, recognised in Rovinj as a symbol of the entire community as it is an original type of fishing vessel the likes of which have been manufactured in Rovinj for many years, with the construction of these watercraft and the entire story surrounding fishing and the traditional life of Rovinj again experiencing a boom with the launch of this program.

Batanas were once traditional watercraft, but they have in more recent history slowly begun to lose their original function, and it is precisely this project that has brought them back into daily life. Along with the interesting stories about the Batana, the museum presents a series of other details closely related to the heritage of Rovinj, from its specialities, songs, folk customs, and even the unique dialect known now only by the older inhabitants.

The presentation in the museum itself is “reinforced” during the summer peak tourism season with attractive events and, above all, with the actual construction of the Batana. One Batana is slowly built each summer on the Rovinj waterfront so that visitors can enjoy a view of their unique manufacture, and those lucky enough to be on hand at the time can witness its official launch into the sea.

The future Museum of Croatian Tourism will be created in Opatija (a town on the Kvarner Gulf, near the Croatian port of Rijeka)

The beginning of the project is expected to start in March 2007 in Opatija’s Villa Angiolina - a beautiful Opatija villa, surrounded by mature Mediterranian gardens, where various artefacts from the history of Croatian tourism will be displayed.

Above image: Old Photo of well known sight of Opatija – click for more old photos of Croatia