About the museum:
The museum was founded in 2007 and operates on the islands of Losinj and Cres. It includes the Tower Museum-Gallery in Veli Lošinj, the Fritzy Palace in Mali Lošinj, and the Archaeological Collection of Osor in Osor.
The Tower Museum-Gallery, Veli Lošinj
The freestanding circular Tower was built in the 15th century to defend the inhabitants of Veli Lošinj against pirate raids. Once a dominant building in the city harbour, the Tower has become a symbol of Veli Lošinj.
The Tower was completely restored during the 1990s. Since 2001, its first two floors have housed a permanent exhibition on the history of Veli Lošinj, with a particular emphasis on tourism and its glorious maritime tradition. A special place in the permanent exhibition has been given to the discovery of the Apoxiomenos, an Antique bronze statue discovered off the coast of Veli Lošinj in 1999.
The third floor houses a gallery for temporary exhibitions; the battlement-belvedere can also be accessed from this floor.
The Fritzy Palace, Mali Lošinj
The museum has its seat in Fritzy Palace, which was built on the site of the Municipio, the first city administration building (early 19th c.).Late in the 19th century, the building became a meeting point for the craftsmen of Lošinj, who thoroughly converted the building to the Historicist art style. They remodelled the splendid Great Hall on the first floor into a gallery, which has carved balustrades with the symbols of particular crafts. Pension Fritzy (after which the palace was named) operated there during the early 20th century.
The palace houses the two most valuable collections from the Art Collections of Mali Lošinj, the Piperata Collection of Old Masters and the A. V. Mihičić Collection of Croatian Masters.
The Piperata Collection was assembled by Giuseppe Piperata (1883 – 1976), a physician and avid art lover from Mali Lošinj. He amassed the collection from items in antique shops, cellars, and attics in Naples, Friuli, and Veneto. The collection includes 27 paintings, mostly by Italian Baroque artists such as G. Forabosco, Il Guercino, A. Carneo, F. Solimena, and F. Fontebasso. The collection also contains three chests and a commode from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
The Mihičić Collection contains some 360 works of art, mostly donations made by the artists themselves, to Andro Vid Mihičić, anart historian, critic and long-time lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. This 'intimate collection with dedications' boasts the names of renowned Croatian artists: E. Vidović, A. Motika, S. Aralica, V. Parać, V. Filakovac, I. Meštrović, F. Kršinić, A. Augustinčić, V. Radauš, D. Penić, and others.
The Archaeological Collection of Osor
The Archaeological Collection of Osor is the oldest museum institution on the islands of Cres and Lošinj, as well as one of the oldest archaeological collections in Croatia. The collection is located in the former City Hall and lodge edifice, a Renaissance building from the first half of the 15th century.
Items predominantly dating to the Roman Empire are on display on the first floor of the City Hall.A collection of stone monuments – fragments from Antiquity and from mediaeval Croatian wattle (pleter)- has been set up in the spacious lodge.
The beginnings of the Osor Archaeological Collection are linked to the Bishop of Osor, Dinaričić (18th c.) and the Archvicar Ivan Kvirin Bolmarčić (19th c.), who gathered the first archaeological collection in the rectory of the bishop’s palace. The collection was officially opened to the public in 1889 at the City Hall.
Osor Musical Evenings is a unique national music festival most recognizable for the premieres of works by Croatian composers. The festival was founded in 1974 by film and TV director Danijel Marušić (1931-2009), who thought Osor had exceptional historic significance. Through his urban interventions, he strived to permanently mark Osor as a city of culture and music, envisaging a sort of open-air museum. Consequently, the main square and nearby streets have been enriched with music-inspired art works by famous Croatian sculptors I. Meštrović, F. Kršinić, V. Radauš, M. Ujević, and others, creating the Park of Sculptures - “Sculptures and Music”. Some of the sculptures represent composers, such asJ. Gotovac, S. Šulek, F. Krežma, and I. Tijardović. The busts of I. Brkanović, B. Papandopulo, D. Pejačević, I. Kuljerić, and S. Horvat on the Alley of Croatian Composers (works by M. Ujević, K. Kovačić, P. Barišić, and N. Horvat respectively) are reminiscent of the composers to whom the Osor Musical Evenings have been dedicated.
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