What to do and see in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County: The Best History Museums

Memorial Center Lipa remembers was opened in Lipa on April 2015 on the site of the former Memorial Museum operating from 1968 to 1989. With the restoration of the museum, memory is also being restored. Memory of heavy historical heritage of 30th of April 1944 when Lipa, in just a few hours, lost 269 of its residents, mostly elderly, women and children. The crime was committed by the Nazis and Fascists within the "Braunschweig" offensive- territory cleansing operation against partisan "bandits". Killing civilians was followed by the theft of their property, and burning all of their houses and farmhouses. The end of World War II brings Lipa to its knees as surviving inhabitants have no homes to return to. At this point a long and painstaking restoration began, and the continuation of life marked by a sense of loss. Today Lipa lives and remembers. The permanent exhibition of the Memorial Center Lipa remembers interprets the history of World War II in the microregion of Liburnian Karst that, in addition to Lipa, comprises of Pasjak, Rupa, Šapjane and Brdce. Memorial Heritage of World War II is complemented by the overview of the continuity of life in this region, from prehistoric times to the present, with a special emphasis on the cultural, ethnographic and historical heritage, dating before and after the tragic event. In holistic approach to this regions heritage, the tragic event of 30th of April 1944 can be seen in a broader context, as only one of many identity features belonging to vital and potent community of Lipa.

THE MARITIME AND HISTORY MUSEUM OF THE CROATIAN LITTORAL has been one of the most important meeting-places of culture in the city of Rijeka for the last four decades. With its permanent display and many valuable exhibitions from its own holdings or of other Croatian museums it takes part in tracing the important events connected with the history and culture of Rijeka, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and Croatia, and so it reveals small parts of the insufficiently known past. With its research into the complex materials (of archaeological, ethnographical, artistic, cultural-historical and maritime-historical characteristics), in a time span from prehistory to the Modern Age, with expert and scientific methods it processes, systemises and presents the role and development of the whole of the social organism in the region of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the Croatian Littoral and the city of Rijeka and points out its specific and interactive relationship with other European centres over a thousand year period, with the aim of becoming a dynamic, open and educative institution. With its headquarters in the building of the former Governor’s Palace, a protected cultural monument, as exhibit number 1, the museum with an interdisciplinary approach offers the consideration–identification, familiarisation and understanding of the character of the people and places, memories and myths, uncovering the identity, which represents an unbreakable link of the past and present.

Construction of the Governor’s Palace began in 1892 during the period of Governor Lajos Batthyány's rule and based on the design of one of the leading Hungarian architects of the time, Alajos Hauszmann who had already proved himself on the project of the King's Palace and the Parliament building in Budapest. On a surface area of 12 000 m² a simple and monumental corpus of the detached neo-Renaissance palace was built based on models of the famous Palladi's works, a French park with two fountains and balustrades made of wrought iron and two-leaf doors with sentry boxes.Today, the Maritime and Historical Museum of the Croatian Littoral can be found at the palace founded in 1961 which contains a maritime, cultural and historical, ethnographical and archaeological department. Part of the exhibits of original pieces from the Governor’s palace are presented in lounges, including the furniture and objects of the art crafts belonging to the periods from the Renaissance to Historicism as well as a collection of portraits of the most notable Rijeka citizens.

Kuća Rabske torte is a museum of Rab cake. You can see alive how is made, learn about it, taste it, you can even go to a workshop and try to make it yourself. In the evening it becomes a relaxing oasis in the heart of town noice where you can eat local snacks and drink finest Croatian wine and bear

A residential medieval house built at the end of the 15th - early 16th centuries has never been redesigned. The last owners, the family Feretić, were childless, therefore the house stood in desolation for 35 years. Thanks to a private initiative in 2017 it was restored and turned into a museum. You will plunge into the atmosphere of the past centuries and see how at that time people built a place, what objects of everyday life they used and how they cooked their food.

The museum Includes eleven collections: fine arts, arts & crafts, numismatics, valuable objects, medals, arms from the Second World War and from the Croatian War of Independence, a collection of theatre and film material, philately, photography, press and technical collections.

The Croatian Museum of Tourism was established in 2007 and its headquarters were purposefully located in Opatija - the city where Croatian tourism was born and whose growth was completely intertwined with tourism. This unique museum collects, investigates and displays objects and stories that bear witness to the rich history of tourism in Croatia, but it also raises the question of how tourism today affects all of us - how our cities are changing, as well as how we change by traveling and welcoming travelers. The museum has three locations in the center of Opatija - villa Angiolina and Swiss House in the Angiolina Park and Juraj Sporer Art Pavilion in St. Jacob’s Park.