NSK’s 2026 Miroslav Krleža Festival get-together and exhibition
3 July 2026, 12.00
The programme with which the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) traditionally joins the Miroslav Krleža Festival, commemorating a giant of Croatia’s 20th-century literature and one of its greatest intellectual figures, will be held in the Library’s side lobby on 3 July 2026.
The Festival’s 15th edition, taking place in Zagreb from 28 June to 7 July and on 10 July in Koprivnica, will again present a rich programme, featuring events ranging from roundtables and debates to exhibitions and stagings of several Krleža’s works.
Celebrating 25 years since the unsealing of Krleža’s manuscripts archive in NSK
As the Festival’s longtime partner, NSK will again host a programme spotlighting Krleža’s archive which the Library holds. Along with a get-together in which the Festival’s Director Goran Matović, Head of the NSK Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection Dr Irena Galić Bešker, Professor at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Lada Čale Feldman, Dr Suzana Marjanić, from the Zagreb Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, and Pavle Bonča, from The Miroslav Krleža Institute of Lexicography, will discuss Krleža’s profound impact on Croatian literature and culture, it will include a one-day exhibition of Krleža’s manuscripts in the NSK collections.
Added to the Library’s holdings in 1988 in accordance with Krleža’s express wish, the archive is preserved as part of the NSK Manuscripts and Rare Books Collection, where it has been available to the public since its unsealing in 2001, upon the expiry of a 20-year moratorium which Krleža requested on surveying or handling the archive’s material. The programme’s visitors will have a unique opportunity to see a selection of Krleža’s autographs such as those for his works Journey to Russia (Izlet u Rusiju), The Glembays (Gospoda Glembajevi), On the Edge of Reason (Na rubu pameti) and others.
A dynamic platform for a lively dialogue with Krleža’s legacy
Other Zagreb-based Croatian cultural institutions also hosting the Festival this year are the University of Zagreb’s Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb Youth Theatre, Josip Račić Modern Gallery and the Croatian State Archives, where the Festival’s preopening will be held on 18 June with a roundtable thematising Aretej, the last play which Krleža managed to finish. Addressing issues surrounding the (social) responsibility of intellectuals, the very purpose of humanism and an individual’s position in times of violence and political and other threats to freedom, the premiere of this highly complex and provocative Krleža’s play will be the highlight of the Festival’s official opening on 28 June.
The Festival is organised with the support of the City of Zagreb, Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media, Zagreb Tourist Board and the City of Koprivnica.