The Map Collection

The Map Collection of the Croatian History Museum was established as a separate museum collection in 1980. Before that time maps were kept in other museum collections: the Graphics and Documentary Collections, as well as in the Museum Library. The collection contains maps, atlases and charts - a total some 1.400 items. The bulk of the collection consists of maps of Croatia and other parts of Europe dating from the 16^th century to the beginning of World War I.

According to the data from the first inventory lists of the National Museum, the maps were acquired throughout Europe: from antique shops in Vienna, Prague, Leipzig, Linz, Berlin, Frankfurt... A significant part of the Collection is made up of maps donated to the Museum, and this tradition of donations has been preserved by people of good will even to this day. Although our collection is not as large as those in famous European museums and libraries, the maps themselves provide ample insight into the territory of Croatia over the centuries, as well as of historical events in Croatia. The maps are sources for the political, economic and cultural history of Croatia, and are therefore indispensable exhibits in all of the Museum's historical exhibitions.

Map-making was from the 15^th century onwards, linked with major European cities, merchant and maritime centres - Venice, Rome, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Paris, Augsburg, Nurnberg and Vienna - and the maps in the Croatian History Museum's Collection were made in these workshops. The maps were made using woodcutting, copper-engraving and lithographic techniques. In the second half of the 19^th century maps were also printed by printing-shops in Zagreb.

A great majority of the items in the Map Collection of the Croatian History Museum has been professionally researched. The oldest material - maps and atlases published up to the end of the 18^th century - has been published in the 22^nd catalogue of the Museum's Collections: Ancient Maps and Atlases at the Croatian History Museum, Zagreb 1987. In this catalogue the maps were presented by country of origin and date of publication. A catalogue of the entire Map Collection at the Croatian History Museum is presently being prepared for publication.