Croatia’s first private museum, opened in 2003 in a mid-19th-century manor house in Samobor, on the western edge of Zagreb, to show the collector Veljko Marton’s European applied art of the 18th and 19th centuries.
At a glance
The Marton Museum is the public face of a private collection: glass, porcelain, silver, paintings, furniture and clocks made in Central and Western Europe between the mid-18th and the 19th century. It was the first private museum in Croatia.
History
Veljko Marton, a Zagreb entrepreneur and art collector, opened the museum on 18 May 2003, International Museum Day, in a Samobor manor house dating from the middle of the 19th century. After almost eight years in Samobor the museum opened a second venue in Zagreb on 18 March 2011, in the Kulmer Palace on Katarinin trg, in the Upper Town. The Zagreb venue did not last: the museum has since returned to its original house in Samobor, which is today its only address.
What you see
The rooms are arranged as period interiors rather than as rows of cases: furniture, paintings, mirrors and glass chandeliers are shown together in the manner of a 19th-century home. The collection is best known for its European porcelain, shown alongside glass, silver and clocks.
Cultural significance
The museum showed that a private collection could become a public institution in Croatia, and it has carried that collection abroad: the museum lists its own exhibitions in Budapest, Naples, Venice, Vienna, Paris and London, as well as in Zagreb.
Key facts
- Country: Croatia
- Address: Jurjevska ulica 7, 10430 Samobor
- Coordinates: 45.80062, 15.70922
- Opened: 18 May 2003
- Founder: Veljko Marton
- Collection: European glass, porcelain, silver, paintings, furniture and clocks, mid-18th to 19th century
- Zagreb venue: Kulmer Palace, Katarinin trg 2, opened 18 March 2011, later closed
Practical information & getting there
The museum is in the centre of Samobor, about 20 km west of Zagreb. Visits are by prior arrangement: the museum’s contact page (checked in October 2026) gives the telephone number +385 1 3670 600. Call before travelling.
Sources & resources
- Muzej Marton – Croatian Wikipedia (opening date, the Samobor manor house, the 2011 Zagreb venue)
- Muzej Marton otvara se u Kulmerovoj palači – tportal, 14 March 2011
- Marton Museum – Wikipedia (return to Samobor, the porcelain)
- Muzej Marton, Jurjevska ulica 7, Samobor – OpenStreetMap
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