DIGITALIZIRANI ANALOGNI FOTOGRAFSKI FONDOVI PRIRODOSLOVNOG ODJELA NARODNOG MUZEJA ZADAR
Organized public museum activity in Zadar is considered one of the oldest in Croatia. The year 1832 marks the official beginning of this activity, when the Austrian Governor of Dalmatia, Vetter von Lilienberg, called upon district heads and bishops across the region to organize the collection of heritage objects within their respective areas for a general provincial museum—the *Museo Nazionale* in Zadar—intended to collect and exhibit specimens from the natural sciences and antiquities, as well as examples of folk and industrial activities. Due to various circumstances, this museum did not develop into the institution the Governor had envisioned; however, it gave rise to the Archaeological Museum in the Church of St. Donatus in 1880 and the City Natural History Museum in 1905—the latter’s collections forming the foundation of the present-day Natural History Department of the National Museum Zadar.
Immediately following the end of World War II, in September 1945, a new attempt was made to establish a National Museum comprising Natural History and Ethnographic departments; this initiative drew upon the remnants of the City Natural History Museum's collection—much of which had been destroyed during the Allied bombing of Zadar—and the beginnings of an ethnographic collection donated by collector Dušan Jurković. The National Museum operated in this form until 1952, when the departments evolved into independent museums; however, this arrangement was short-lived, as the People's Committee of the Municipality of Zadar decided in 1962 to establish a National Museum that brought together the Natural History and Ethnographic museums, the Art Gallery (founded in 1948), the newly established Zadar City Museum, and the Museum of the People's Revolution (then in the process of formation). The National Museum was established as a complex museum dedicated to researching, preserving, and interpreting the natural and cultural heritage of northern Dalmatia—excluding archaeology—and it continues to operate to this day, having transitioned from a single museum entity into a structure of distinct departments.
Today, the Zadar National Museum comprises four departments—the Natural History Department, the Ethnological Department, the Museum of the City of Zadar, and the Art Gallery; two satellite collections—the Veli Iž Ethnographic Collection and the Mali Iž Cultural-Historical Collection; three exhibition pavilions that also serve as cultural monuments—the City Loggia, the Rector's Palace, and the Mali Arsenal Visitor Center; two specialized services—the Documentation Service and the Educational Service; as well as a secretariat and an accounting department as general administrative units.
Despite the spatial separation of its constituent units—a factor that presents organizational, technical, and financial challenges—the museum has for decades tirelessly pursued its research, presentation, publishing, and educational mission, all grounded in its rich collection. Comprising over 100,000 items, the museum’s collection represents a heritage asset that conveys cultural and natural values, as well as the identity of Zadar and the wider region. Through the co-organization and hosting of exhibitions from other institutions, alongside the organization of professional and scholarly gatherings, workshops, cultural events, concerts, and promotional activities, the National Museum serves as an indispensable cultural, educational, social, and tourism hub for the city and the county.
The future presents new challenges for the National Museum. A solution to the issue of spatially separated departments is already taking shape through the EU-funded renovation of the Rector's Palace. This marks the initiation of the first phase of the Heritage Museum/Museum of Two Palaces project, which aims to house all museum departments under one roof within the Rector's Palace and—in the near future—the renovated Providur's Palace. By combining museum offerings with public amenities, this project will ultimately realize a new dimension for the institution, grounded in contemporary museum standards.
The return of the museum to the historical space of the Providur Palace would symbolically close a full circle from the point where, shortly after the museum's foundation, the first donated material was placed, in the premises where the provincial government that founded it in 1832 was seated, to the same point where the museum material of the new regional museum of northern Dalmatia will return.
