Kninski muzej

About the museum

The Knin Museum is housed in the Knin Fortress (Kninska tvrđava), one of the largest fortresses in Croatia, covering about 123,000 square metres and 470 metres in length. The fortress was a royal residence of the Croatian rulers and, under King Dmitar Zvonimir (from 1076), the political centre of the kingdom. The Ottomans took it in 1522 and the Venetians in 1688. Its present form is due to the Venetian engineer Alberghetti, and an inscription marks its completion in 1711. Knin was liberated in Operation Storm (Oluja) on 5 August 1995.

Museum activity began in 1887, when Fra Lujo Marun founded the Croatian Antiquarian Society. The Knin Region Heritage Museum was founded on 9 October 1969 by the Knin municipal assembly and opened on 29 November 1969. Until 1991 the museum moved into the renovated buildings of the fortress. During the Homeland War it was devastated and partly looted; it reopened to the public in 1996 in three renovated buildings on the Belvedere in the southern part of the fortress. Since 1997 the founder has been the City of Knin, and the institution is called the Knin Museum.

The museum displays an ethnographic collection (furniture, household tools, traditional costumes of the Dalmatian hinterland and Bukovica), an archaeological collection with finds from the Knin area from the Mesolithic to the early modern period, a geological and palaeontological collection, a picture gallery and an exhibition on Oluja ’95 in a building renovated in 2015. The museum also manages the ramparts, the lower town and the archaeological zone on the Spas hill.

Highlights

• Ethnographic collection with traditional costumes from the Dalmatian hinterland and Bukovica
• Archaeological collection with finds from the Mesolithic to the early modern period
• Exhibition on Oluja ’95
• Picture gallery and interpretation centre in the fortress
• Ramparts and viewpoints of one of Croatia’s largest fortresses

Permanent exhibitions

• Etnografska zbirka – Furniture, household tools and traditional crafts (wool processing, pottery, basketry, woodcarving) as well as 19th- and 20th-century costumes from the Dalmatian hinterland and Bukovica.
• Arheološka zbirka – Finds from the Knin area from the Mesolithic to the early modern period.
• Izložba „Oluja ’95” – Exhibition on the Homeland War and Operation Storm in the building renovated in 2015.

Founded

1969

Operated by

Grad Knin

Admission & discounts

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Accessibility

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Kids & families

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Getting there & parking

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Amenities & dining

• Restaurant

There is a restaurant among the buildings on the Belvedere.

Events & venue rental

The museum hasn’t published any information on this.

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