Best museums and art galleries to visit in Dubrovnik
The museums in Dubrovnik offer a window into the city's fascinating past and rich cultural heritage spanning from ancient times to the present day, making it a haven for history enthusiasts. Choose from several captivating museums and galleries.
The Dubrovnik Homeland War Museum is located inside Fort Imperial on Mount Srđ, the fortress that became one of the key defensive positions during the 1991 siege of Dubrovnik. Its permanent exhibition, Dubrovnik in the Homeland War 1991-1995, uses original photographs, documents, military equipment, maps, recordings and personal objects to explain the attack on Dubrovnik, the defence of the city and the liberation of southern Croatia.
The museum is one of the best places to understand Dubrovnik's recent history and is particularly worth combining with a trip to the top of Srđ, where you also get panoramic views over the Old Town, Lokrum Island and the Adriatic coast.
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The Ronald Brown Memorial House was opened in his honour after his tragic death in 1996 in a plane crash. In Dubrovnik it is also known as the Dulčić - Masle - Pulitika Gallery.
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The House of Marin Držić is a small literary museum in Dubrovnik Old Town dedicated to the life, plays and political ideas of Marin Držić, the city's greatest Renaissance playwright. Sometimes compared with Shakespeare because of his importance to national drama, Držić was a sharp observer of Dubrovnik society whose comedies mocked greed, vanity, hypocrisy and human stupidity.
The museum is most worthwhile for visitors interested in literature, theatre and Renaissance Dubrovnik. It is not a preserved house filled with Držić's original belongings, but an interpretive museum using documents, costumes, theatre material and multimedia to reconstruct his life and work.
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The present Dubrovnik Natural History Museum opened in Andrović Palace in 2009, but its collections and institutional history date back to the founding of the Museo Patrio in 1872. Today the museum combines historic specimens with collections documenting the wildlife, geology and changing biodiversity of the Dubrovnik region.
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The Dubrovnik Maritime Museum tells the story of the city's rise as one of the Mediterranean's great maritime and trading powers. Appropriately, the museum occupies the first and second floors of Fort St John, the fortress that once guarded the entrance to Dubrovnik's Old City Port.
With more than 11,000 objects across 15 collections, the museum covers Dubrovnik seafaring from antiquity through the Republic of Ragusa and into the modern era. Ship models, navigation instruments, maritime charts, paintings, documents and underwater archaeological finds make it particularly worthwhile for visitors interested in Dubrovnik's history beyond the City Walls.
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Dubrovnik's Ethnographic Museum offers a look at everyday life, clothing, crafts and rural traditions across the wider Dubrovnik region. The collection is displayed inside Rupe, a remarkable granary built by the Dubrovnik Republic in 1590, where grain was once stored in deep pits carved directly into the rock.
The building is as interesting as many of the exhibits. Visitors can see the original grain-storage system on the ground floor before exploring traditional costumes, textiles, agricultural life and handicrafts from Konavle, the Elaphiti Islands, Pelješac, Mljet, Korčula and other parts of the Dubrovnik area.
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- Written by: Orsat Munitić