10 unusual things to do in Croatia
21.07.2023 - 07:46
/ roughguides.com
Croatia’s bucket list includes Plitvice Lakes, Dubrovnik and at least one summer music festival. But what about more unusual things to do in Croatia. Plan a few detours into your trip for these offbeat Croatian attractions. The information in this article is taken from The Rough Guide to Croatia, your essential guide for visiting Croatia.
Explore recesses of the human psyche at the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb.
This travelling art installation became a permanent museum in 2010. And the collection is built on donated mementoes. It’s a unique gathering of memory and raw emotion. Exhibits range from garden gnomes to prosthetic limbs. And each has a text explaining its significance to the donor. Some are touching, some kinky, and some belong in a David Lynch film.
Broken Relationships Museum exhibit (illustration) © Shutterstock
The 1960s and 70s saw a boom in modern Adriatic architecture. Now it seems Croatian Modernism is back. Discover Hotel Lone as proof. You’ll find it looming above Lone Bay, outside chic Rovinj in Istria.
The amoeba shaped design is by Zagreb architects 3LHD. The interior’s furnished by Croatia’s leading creatives. And it’s a rare example of an hotel which is also an artwork.
Don't want to stay over? Then just peek inside to see Ivana Franke’s Room for Running Ghosts. Don’t miss textile wall-hangings by Zagreb fashion designers I-GLE. And spare a glance at the circular lobby.
If you like the idea of a tailor made trip, get in touch and we can connect you with a local expert to plan and book your ideal holiday.
An aerial view of modern Hotel Lone in Rovinj, Istria, Croatia © burnel1/Shutterstock
The discovery of Neanderthal bones in 1899 put Krapina on the map. However, it took until 2010 for the town to get the museum it deserved.
An ambitious, ultra-modern building houses the museum. And visitors ascend a spiral pathway round the earth’s development. It’s a tour de force in Evolutionary Theory. But the most entertaining aspects are devoted to Neanderthals themselves. A film shows actors re-creating a day in the life of a Neanderthal tribe. And the display ends with a diorama featuring Neanderthal figures.
Krapina tops the unusual things to do in Croatia list © xbrchx/Shutterstock
Few European cemeteries are as meditative as Varaždin. It’s a minor horticultural masterpiece. And was very much the lifework of park keeper Hermann Haller (1875-1953).
Haller believed cemeteries should be life-enhancing public parks. To this end he planted rows of conifers. He then sculpted them into stately green pillars. Ultimately they towered over the graves. To create, in Haller’s words, “quiet and harmonious hiding places” for the dead.
The cemetery is also something of an exterior art