Bjelovar City Museum
The idea of establishing the Bjelovar City Museum was born in 1946. The initiative was started by the teacher Rade Kovač on behalf of the then Community Centre, and the museum was founded three years later, on August 25, 1949. It was then called the Regional Museum, had two curators and one administrative officer, and consisted of several private collections of collectors from Bjelovar and the surrounding area. They were the collectors Heinrich (Hinke) Kamer, an employee of the Austro-Hungarian Railways and Ivan Barešić, a construction entrepreneur and musician. The museum operated under the name of the Regional Museum until April 27, 1954, when, by decision of the People’s Committee of the Municipality of Bjelovar, it was renamed the Bjelovar City Museum, the name under which it still operates today.
The museum is located in a beautiful one-story building from the 19th century, which has the status of a first-category heritage asset, at the address Trg Eugena Kvaternika 1, in the very historical centre of the city. It is an important heritage asset that was completely restored in 2010 and now shines in all its glory. The museum itself consists of 34 collections that are divided into archaeological, ethnological, historical, cultural-historical and gallery departments and a library, and in the process of establishment there are also a music and technical collection, a collection of posters and a number of others. The museum is appreciated all over the world, so it was included in the prestigious edition of the book Museums of the World by the German publishing house Saur, as well as in the European magazine Museum Aktuell.
The museum hosts International Museum Day and Museum Night every year, during which visitors can experience the museum in a slightly different atmosphere, while concerts, plays and other cultural events are often held on the stage in the museum’s atrium and the large event hall. The museum is open to visitors from Tuesday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The ticket price for adult visitors is 1.59 euros, and for pensioners, pupils, students and groups of citizens (from 10 to 30 people) 1.06 euros per person.