About the museum:
The municipal museum in Požega was founded on December 6, 1924, thanks to Julije Kempf, a prominent native of the town. The museum is of the complex local history kind. Four departments in the museum look after the priceless museum heritage located in thirty collections and fifty subcollections that tell of the rich history and important cultural identity of Požega and the Požega region Numerous archaeological sites tell of the continuity of the many civilisations that have developed in the area. Along with the prince’s tumulus from the New Stone Age by the Kaptol, the best known is the Roman settlement with necropolis close to Tekić, and the medieval Benedictine abbey at Rudina of the 12th century, known for the relief stone corbels, the so-called Rudin heads. Important documents, objects and photographs kept in the museum show that Požega was always an important cultural, political and ecclesiastical centre – from the first written mention in 1227 at the time when it was the seat of the county and from the time of the medieval feudal aristocrats. There are also testimonies of 150 years of Turkish rule and the liberation from the Ottomans, of Požega as centre of the imperial chamber supervisor, the time of the coming of the Jesuits (the high school and Academia Posegana!) to the renovation of the county and Požega as free and royal city. In the 19th century the town was known for the developed middle class stratum of craftsmen and tradesmen, educated people, writers, artists, and numerous family branches and associations. The museum’s art collection keeps valuable objects of various periods of style, objects of applied crafts, paintings and sculptures of celebrated Požega people (Baron Trenk, Count and Countess Janković, high župan, F. Ciraki, I. Thaller, D. Lerman, Milka Ternina) and works of well-known artists including B. Čikoš Sesija and Miroslav Kraljević, M. Peić and J. Janda. The stories of Dragutin Lerman – African explorer, of Ivo Čakalić – peasant artist and ethnographer, and the folk heritage of the Požega region are woven into the ethnographic collections that hold most interesting objects of textile handicrafts, potting, basket making and wooden objects of everyday life.
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