History of the Museum

Share on:

HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM

The idea of Staro Selo Museum dates back to 1947, when people from throughout the former Yugoslavia came to Kumrovec to visit the birth house of Josip Broz Tito. A proposal was made that the core of the village of Kumrovec be placed under protection. That same year, the Urban Development Institute of the People's Republic of Croatia prepared an extensive development plan for the area between Zelenjak and Razvor and Professor Marijana Gušić, who was then the director of the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb, wrote a study on Kumrovec. The period in question was also one of speedy development of Kumrovec:

  • in 1948, the Hotel Kumrovec was built (subsequently residence of Josip Broz Tito from 1962), and academic sculptor Antun Augustinčić's sculpture of Josip Broz Tito was  placed in the yard of the Broz family
  • in 1950, Marijana Gušić organized the ethnographic exhibits in the right side of the Josip Broz Tito's birth house, representing the home atmosphere of the Broz cooperative family, while the left side of the house accommodates a biographical display created by academic painter Edo Kovačević and architect Pavao Ungar
  • in 1952, the Education, Science, and Culture Council of the People's Republic of Croatia founded the Museum in Kumrovec, with Zdenko Vojnović, director of Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb, appointed its director
  • in 1953, the Education, Science, and Culture Council of the People's Republic of Croatia founded Muzej Maršala Tita [Marshal Tito Museum]; the period was one in which construction and horticultural work was done and exhibits collected to equip the preserved and restored houses that comprise the nucleus of Kumrovec village
  • in 1953, Memorijalni Muzej Maršala Tita [Marshal Tito Memorial Museum] was placed under the management of Muzej Revolucije Naroda Hrvatske [Museum of the Revolution of the People of Croatia]
  • following museological conservational principles, Marijana Gušić prepared a catalogue of preservation of 61 facilities in Kumrovec ; the Conservation Institute in Zagreb (Dr. Ana Deanović in cooperation with museum officials, architects, and urban planners) prepared a study on the protection of the village of Kumrovec based on which the Regional Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments entered Staro Selo Kumrovec in the Register of 1st Category Cultural Monuments
  • in 1973, Klanjec Municipal Assembly endorsed the decision on declaring Kumrovec a memorial natural monument and highly protected area under the name of Kumrovec Memorial Park, the priority task being to preserve the authenticity of the facilities and the environment

Even though, at the very start of the construction of the biggest ethnographic open-space museum, the basic conservation principles were undermined by rash decisions, the progressive ideas of the author of the concept of Staro Selo Kumrovec Museum and involving ethnologists, historians, and architects in the implementation of the project eventually resulted in the construction of a showcase in situ open-space museum that currently includes, in addition to Josip Broz Tito's birth house, 40 or so preserved and restored traditional housing and farm facilities that house exhibitions of crafts and customs of Hrvatsko Zagorje in the late 19th century and the early 20th century.