Description of the attraction
The Museum of Folk Crafts and Crafts, located in Zagreb, was founded in the 1880s at the initiative of the Arts Society. The museum became one of the first institutions of its kind in Europe. In 1882, a school of crafts was established at the museum, which today is the School of Applied Arts and Design. The project of the museum building was developed by the architect Hermann Bolle in the spirit of the German Renaissance.
The foundation of the museum fund was laid several years before the official opening by Bishop Strossmeier. With donations from Isidor Krishnavia at a Paris auction in 1875, a collection of the Catalan artist and collector Marian Fortunia was acquired. Since the 1880s, the collection has been replenished not only in Croatia, but throughout Europe. Much of the museum fund was obtained from private collectors.
In the early years, the museum was housed in a rented building on Maria Valeriya Street (now Prague Street). The museum moved to its current building in 1909, at the same time a permanent exhibition was opened. In 1919, a museum of modern art was opened at the museum. Later, the Ethnographic Museum was separated from the Zagreb Museum of Folk Crafts and Crafts.
From 1933 to 1952 the museum was under the leadership of the director Vladimir Tkalich. During this period, a new exposition was created, consisting of photographs, graphics, printed products. A restoration workshop was established at the museum. Since the 1950s, the museum has been actively holding exhibitions.
After the collapse of Yugoslavia and the hostilities of this period, the museum opened in 1995 after the reconstruction and restoration of the building. Today, the museum's collection contains about 100 thousand items of fine and applied art, dating back to the 14-21 centuries. In the library of the museum there are more than 65 thousand books on arts and crafts.
