The idea to include the old village centre of Kumrovec in the protection of historical monuments project was born as early as 1947 when Marijana Gusic, the then head of the Zagreb Ethnographical Museum, made an ethnographic research of the Croatian Zagorje and wrote a study on the town of Kumrovec with the birth-place of Josip Broz as its most significant sight. The experts of the Zagreb Museum of Arts and Crafts restored the house to its original condition. Additionaly, the grounds were landscaped and in 1948 a monument to Josip Broz Tito by Antun Augustincic, academic sculptor, was erected in the courtyard. The cultural-historical and the fine arts sections of the museum display were established in 1950 by the academic painter Edo Kovacevic and Prof. Zdenko Vojnovic, director of the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Prof. Gusic. was in charge of renovation of the interior of the Broz family house.
In the years that followed further construction and horticultural work took place in addition to collection of objects wherewith to furnish the house interior. In 1953 the Marshal Tito Memorial Museum was set up as a division of the Zagreb Ethnographic Museum. Professor Gusic, head of the Memorial Museum, has in the period 1952-1954 been working on a plan for restoration of the old town centre of Kumrovec. Based on the principles of the restoration-museological method she elaborated a comprehensive catalogue comprising 61 houses with maps and lists of households. Drawing on this catalogue of houses, Ana Deanovic PhD, from the Croatian Restoration Institute wrote a study on protection of the old village of Kumrovec in collaboration with a team of museum experts, architects and urbanists. As a protected rural entity, "Staro Selo" (The Old Village), was listed in the register of the monuments of culture in 1969.
In 1963 the administration of the Staro Selo Museum was taken over by the Museum of Revolution of the Croatian People from Zagreb. Several years later a museum called Kumrovec Museum in Creation was established. The museum operated under this name until 1978 when the Kumrovec Memorial Park was set up. Since 1992 the Staro Selo Museum has been run as a department of the Croatian Zagorje Museums with its headquarters in Gornja Stubica.
The Staro Selo Museum is the only open-air museum in Croatia that is equipped with all facilities with which to justify its existence as a European open-air museum.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE STARO SELO MUSEUM
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The restored and reconstructed buildings include 25 residential houses, 9 farm buildings and 8 smaller structures (2 corn sheds, 2 pigsties, and 4 wells), covering a total area of 12,640 square meters. The museum holdings include 2,800 exhibits the majority of which are permanently on show. The 15 permanent ethnographic displays and the two historical ones provide insight into the traditional ways of life, old customs, handicrafts, and trades some of which have long become forgotten. The visitors are also introduced to historical figures and events connected to Kumrovec and the former Klanjec county at the turn of the 19th century. The most significant criterion for revitalisation was the authenticity of the structure and its ethnographic, historical and architectural value. Special attention was paid to preservation of the original appearance and beauty of the local landscape, the main goal being to restore the village to the condition it had at the turn of the 19th century. The most extensive restoration and reconstruction work in the Old Village took place between 1979 and 1985. It included reconstruction of the old road and the stone bridge as well as regulation of the Skrnik stream which runs through the village and flows into the nearby Sutla river. Houses the Kumrovec families refused to live in under specific conditions as set by the museum were purchased from their owners, whereas some farm buildings and their grounds have been preserved in their original function and are still used by their owners who live in interpolated houses in the southern peripheral region of the Staro Selo Museum. Living today in the reconstructed old town centre of Kumrovec are several local families. Revival and presentation of the rural way of life thus helps dispel the static quality of permanent museum displays. All facilities have been reconstructed "in situ", which means that not a single house, well, pigsty or corn shed was brought from another location, but that all were reconstructed on their original foundations, so that today they can be found on the same location at which they stood in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Old crafts have been revived through schools and courses and for some years now the museum has been co-operating with masters of old trades and handicrafts who, as a part of museum displays, demonstrate to the visitors their skills in making pottery, wooden toys or blacksmith's products, including shoeing, as one of the biggest attractions for young visitors. |
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