Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka in the Governor’s Palace
Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka is one of the most important cultural institutions in Croatian Primorje and Gorski Kotar County, situated in the city of Rijeka. It is consists of cultural-historical, archaeological, ethnographical and maritime-historical departments with 47 collections and more than 60 000 museum objects. Also, as a part of the central Museum, there are five dislocated collections in the vicinity of the city: The Museum Collection of the Kastav Region, Memorial Centre Lipa Remembers, The Ethnographic Collection of the Island of Krk in Dobrinj, The Collection of Ship Models from the Shipyard Kraljevica and The Collection of Archaeological Findings Cickini. Since 1961 Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka exists under this name in the Palace known as the Governor’s Palace. The palace used to be residental and administrative building, firstly for Hungarian government in Rijeka from 1896, when it was built, and later for governments and administrations that followed.
„Čudotvornica“, workshop programme for children and young people
The Museum has decades of practice in the field of museum education. There are programs for diverse age groups, from preschoolers to pensioners, visitors with different physical and mental capabilities, local visitors, tourists and others. In 2014 educational and creative museum workshop programme „Čudotvornica“ („The Miracle Room“) was opened and located in the restored pavilion within the Palace building. In the past seven years „Čudotvornica“ has developed rich programe for children and young people including various thematic workshops for preschoolers, elementary school students and high school students, educational and creative workshops during school holidays, Saturday morning workshops, extracurricular drama and art workshops, travelling workshops, event workshops, thematic birthday parties and more. Children and young people make a very important and numerous part of the museum visitors.
The Museum has permanent exhibitions showing objects from different departments. Period from antiquity to middle ages is shown through the main exhibition „Traces of time“ which was opened in 2015. Ambient atmosphere of the exhibition unit of the early medieval takes visitors to the mystical forest telling the story about the way of life through rich archaeological material collected on excavations of necropolis. The exhibition is enriched with a multimedia that complements the story shown. It is a game that is made to look like an ancient grave. First, an interactive map with archaeological sites where foundings were made is shown. Then a player becomes an archaeologist who „diggs“ in the screen with a brush and collects objects – peaces of pottery, iron knives, razors, arrows, spurs, earrings, pearls from necklaces and more. All of the objects, along with the scenography, tell stories about a life of Croatian tribes, their settlements, warriors, beliefs and funeral customs connected with Slavic mythology. This is a good example of a digital moment in a museum that complements the exhibition explaining the historical theme a bit more in an interesting and interactive way.
Another digital moment in the next exhibition unit is a digital keyboard with letters from old Slavic Glagolitic script. It is interactive and fun way of learning Glagolitic alphabet and learning about the heritage, origins of the script, its usage in history and important monuments and documents written in Glagolitic script. The text that is written on the digital screen, both in Glagolitic and Latinic script, can be printed and taken as a souvenir.
Visitors can experience the fashion of Renaissance and Baroque era with a digital projection in a programme that enables them to see themselves wearing gorgeous historical gowns or as knights in armor. They can take a photo and get it printed as a souvenir from the Museum.
Digital moments in the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Littoral Rijeka are made to be used for educational purposes, to enrich exhibitions and to put more fun and diversity into learning about complex historical stories. Those are intended to stimulate imagination, fantasy, creativity and play, as to show young people all the richness of the Museum content. The Dream project aims to further develop and enrich the digital experience in museums.
