Archaeological Museum

Vučedol dove, Zagreb mummy, and the world's longest Etruscan text

On Nikola Šubić Zrinski Square in the Lower Town, the Archaeological Museum holds Croatia's finest collection of prehistoric, classical, and medieval antiquities. The crown jewel is the Vučedol Dove, a 5,000-year-old ceramic vessel from a Bronze Age settlement on the Danube that has become a national symbol; reproductions sell across the country.

Equally remarkable is the Zagreb Linen Book — bandages from an Egyptian mummy that turned out to carry the longest surviving Etruscan text in existence. Beyond these two highlights are vast collections of Greek, Roman, and Illyrian artefacts. The shaded courtyard café behind the museum is one of the most pleasant in the centre. Closed Mondays.

things to do museum donji grad
A story
The "Liber Linteus Zagrabiensis" — the linen wrappings of an Egyptian mummy in the museum's collection — is the longest surviving Etruscan text in the world. Nobody knows why a 3rd-century BC ritual book in Etruscan was reused to wrap a Roman-era Egyptian mummy, and only a fraction of the text can be translated.

Other places in Donji Grad (Lower Town)