Mestrovic Gallery
Ivan Mestrovic's seafront villa on Marjan, now a gallery of his sculpture and drawings.
The gallery occupies the villa that the sculptor Ivan Mestrovic designed for himself on the southern slope of the Marjan peninsula, building it between 1931 and 1939 as a house, studio and exhibition space. Mestrovic left Croatia during the Second World War and in 1952 transferred the property and a large body of work to the state. The colonnaded building, its terraces and the formal garden are treated as part of the display, with bronzes set among cypresses above the Adriatic.
Holdings run to several hundred sculptures in marble, bronze, wood and plaster, together with drawings, architectural plans and furniture, covering the whole of the artist's career from early Secessionist pieces to late religious work. Admission also covers Crikvine-Kastilac, a short walk along the shore, where a sixteenth-century fortified complex was adapted by Mestrovic to house the wooden reliefs of the Life of Christ cycle in the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer. The two sites are run together as part of the Ivan Mestrovic Museums.
Highlights
- Purpose-built villa and studio designed by the sculptor himself
- Several hundred sculptures in marble, bronze, wood and plaster
- Terraced garden and colonnade overlooking the Adriatic
- Joint ticket with Crikvine-Kastilac and its Life of Christ wood reliefs
