About the museum

Historical and Maritime Museum of Istria

The Historical and Maritime Museum of Istria – Museo storico e navale dell’Istria is a specialised museum of regional scope; a public, cultural and scientific institution that performs its museum activities in observance of the Museum Act and operates on the territory of the Istrian Region. The PPMI is located in a Venetian fortress – a XVII century castle that the authorities of the Venetian Republic built to defend their possessions in southern Istria.

Activities and holdings

The activities of the PPMI comprise the collection, conservation and research of Istrian cultural and historical heritage from the Middle Ages to the present day, its professional and scientific processing and systematization in collections, the preventive and permanent protection of the museum holdings, documentation, locations and sites, their direct and indirect presentation to the public through permanent and occasional exhibitions and publishing of information and knowledge about the museum holdings through professional, scientific and other means of communication. The holdings of the museum number over 100,000 objects of cultural, historical, political, military and ethnographic character, organized in 18 collections.

Since 2011 the museum has been operating the underground tunnels of Zerostrasse and, since 2015, the Herman Potočnik Noordung visitor centre, located in the newly restored former water reservoir built during the Austro-Hungarian rule.

The museum has also been in charge of the House of Frescoes in the Istrian town of Draguć (Kuća fresaka u Draguću – Casa degli affreschi a Draguccio) since 2016.

Education

Since the end of 2009 the PPMI has established the Department of Pedagogy and Education which oversees the presentation of the Museum and bringing of the museum experience closer to different user groups. It offers education for children and youths from pre-school to student level and fosters cooperation with kindergartens, schools, colleges and various organizations. It is also involved in all educational and pedagogical actions organized under the auspices of the Pedagogical Section of the Croatian Museum Association.

Library

The museum is also home to a library not open to the general public but to professional museum staff only.  Exceptionally, professional literature may be loaned to students for the requirements of writing of seminar papers and graduate theses and to professionals and scientists of different profiles. Numerous public, cultural and entertainment events, film projections, theatre performances and concerts are held in the open space – the Museum atrium – during the summer months. 

Basic information

Museum type: history, regional
Scope: regional
Founded in: 1955
Founder: Istrian Region
Director: Gracijano Kešac, B.A. in History