Trend of militarization continues.
Croatian War Museum, as a central national institution of its kind, will soon be built in Zagreb. It will present exhibits related to the Homeland War, as well as exhibits since the first historical mention of Croatia and Croats’ fight for their country, announced on Thursday Assistant Defence Minister Zoran Piličić and Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandić, reports Index.hr on February 2, 2017.
The meeting was held at the initiative of the Defence Ministry and it was attended by representatives of the Culture Ministry, City of Zagreb, and Zagreb Holding. Zagreb as Croatian capital is the place where we really need a central, national institution such as the Croatian War Museum, which will be accompanied by regional branches of the museum around Croatia, said Piličić.
He pointed out that the establishment of the Croatian War Museum was first discussed 20 years ago. “In 1993, President Tuđman signed an act on establishing the Croatian War Museum, and its first director was General Ante Roso, but everything remained at the level of initiatives, ideas, conversations”, he added. Later, the Ministry of Defence established an organizational unit of the Croatian War Museum, which is now part of the Department for Information Services, where hard-working employees have been collecting archival materials for years, said Piličić.
“We have dozens and hundreds of major exhibits, and more than 500,000 units of museum exhibits related to multimedia film materials and everything else. We have now reached the point where time is really running out and we need to do something so that Croatia could have a national military museum, because we believe that Croatia and its citizens deserve it”, said Assistant Defence Minister.
According to plans, the museum should initially be located in several halls of the Zagreb Fair, covering about 50,000 square metres, of which 30,000 square metres would be the exhibition area. Assistant Defence Minister said that the project had the support from the highest political level, primarily from Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Damir Krstičević.
At a meeting, the city authorities and the Ministry agreed to reintroduce ceremonial changing of the guard at the St. Mark’s Square. It will be performed by the Honour Guard Battalion every Saturday until the autumn, and will also be part of Zagreb’s offer to tourists.
CEO of Zagreb Holding Ana Stojić Deban said that the final location for the museum has still not been identified. Ministry of Defence has proposed the Zagreb Fair, and there are possible alternative locations if the fair area is not adequate. Only when the location is selected, will it be possible to discuss the details, said Stojić Deban.
