About us

Welcome to the Museum of Ancient Glass, a unique cultural institution not only in Croatia, but also worldwide. The Museum of Ancient Glass was founded on June 9, 2006 by a decree of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, and it was ceremoniously opened on May 5, 2009.

The museum is located in the renewed historicistic palace of the Cosmacendi family, dating to the second half of the 19th century, whose original architecture was enriched by an annex on the northern side because of the demands related to the museum concept of the permanent display as well as performing everyday museum activities. It is an archaeological museum, but it is specialized for ancient glass. Its display presents a unique collection of over 5000 various glass objects dating to antiquity, i.e. period from the 1st century BC to 5th century AD. Over 1500 complete glass objects are presented in the permanent display that is divided into eight thematic wholes. Except for the permanent display, various glass workshops are organized throughout the year. In the glassblowing demo workshop, replicas of ancient glass are made by using the free blowing technique. Another workshop in the museum deals with making glass jewelry with a torch and making souvenirs in the fusing technique. There is also a demo workshop for making objects of boroslicate glass with a torch. Except for a modern and well-suppled souvenir shop where you can buy a number of publications and various souvenirs made in the museum workshops, the Museum also has two multifunctional halls for occasional exhibitions, lectures, book presentations and projections of documentary films about glassmaking.