From the very beginnings that go back to 1832 until today, the Zadar National Museum
plays a central role in strengthening and promoting the culture of the City of Zadar, and acts through more
departments and exhibition pavilions.
The ethnological department is a place to learn about the traditional rural culture of northern Dalmatia as well as
a place for the dialogue of the population of this area with their own cultural heritage and search
own cultural identity in contemporary cultural and civilizational circumstances. The department is
located in the City Guard on the main square in Zadar, where visitors can look around
exhibitions “The art of tapestry; Collection of weavings and tapestries by Ivan and Ana Tomljanović
“Ethnological peculiarities of northern Dalmatia”, part of the permanent exhibition.
Opposite the Ethnological Department, on the other side of the square, is the City Lodge – the most representative
exhibition space in the city and the scene of professional, cultural, musical, ceremonial and social events –
entertainment programs.
Not far from the Land Gate are II Palaces, two historical buildings –
Providur’s and Knež’s palaces, buildings that individually preserve and transmit numerous historical ones
stories from the past of Zadar, and together they form a complex recognized and protected as national
cultural heritage.
On the first floor of the Duke’s Palace, there is a permanent exhibition “Six salon stories (Historical
environments of the Zadar National Museum) which tells about six historical periods of the city of Zadar.
Every summer, the ground floor of the Duke’s Palace hosts exhibitions of world-famous names, so they will
so the summer of 2023 will be spent in the spirit of Banksy, the most famous street artist in the world.
The second palace, Providurova, thanks to the cooperation of the Zadar National Museum with the National Museum
museum of modern art, it became the center of modern art in the territory of the Republic
of Croatia by hosting the exhibition “One World” in the renovated exhibition halls.
Most of the space in the palaces is intended for exhibition-gallery activities and in this one
the cultural complex organizes various events: exhibitions, workshops, concerts, plays,
movie nights, lectures, symposia etc.
