A NEW MUSEUM WITHIN THE CROATIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS AND THE FIRST OF ITS KIND IN CROATIA: THE CROATIAN MUSEUM OF MEDICINE AND PHARMACY

Abstract

One decade has passed since the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts initiated the foundation of the Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy, providing it with the location of 300m in Gundulićeva Street 24 in Zagreb. The foundation of the Museum was the Collection of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy which was in safekeeping of the Division for the History of Medical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb for more than fifty years. It was put together by combining the materials from two collections: the pharmaceutical-historical collection in Zagreb, which subsequently became the collection of the Institute for the History of Pharmacy, and the one of the Croatian Medical History Museum, which was established in 1944 within the Croatian Medical Association. During the 1960s, the Division for the History of Medical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts took over the materials from both museums.
Croatian Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy was officially established by the decision of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia issued on 7 July 2014. The mission of the Museum is documentation and promotion of Croatian biomedical sciences and practice based on material and immaterial heritage; as well as continued cooperation with Croatian medical and pharmaceutical institutions and companies. Since the establishment of the Museum, many donations have contributed to the enrichment of its holdings. The concept of arranging the standing museum holdings is being prepared, and plans exist to apply for financing the project for Museum premises. The principal strategic goal of the Croatian
Museum of Medicine and Pharmacy is to open the Museum to the public by the year 2020.