“Adriatic and Ionian Ships in the Modern Age (1650-1850)” international exhibition features invaluable Croatian documentary sources
28 November, 14.00
From 28 November to 12 December 2025, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) will host Adriatic and Ionian Ships in the Modern Age (1650-1850), an international exhibition organised by the Croatian History Museum, which is currently undergoing reconstruction.
Featuring the results of several years of research into the maritime heritage of the Mediterranean, this international exhibition by the Assistant Professor at the Zagreb University’s Faculty of Croatian Studies Zrinka Podhraški Čizmek has been created as part of CROMARESHIP, a research project focusing on a systematic analysis of the documentary legacy of the Croatian historian and expert on Croatian maritime commercial history Nikola Čolak (1914-1996). Organised with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media and the Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb, it will bring closer to the visitors both through words and memorable illustrations the vessels reconstructed throughout the project.
Stories of voyages, sailors’ brotherhoods, shipwrecks…
Based on a close inspection of some 20,000 18th-century documents collected by Čolak, the exhibition will feature interesting details of the Mediterranean’s history, bringing alive its vibrant everyday life between the 17th and 19th centuries.
In addition to data on records of ports’ entries and exits, in sailors’ guilds or brotherhoods, registrations of sailors, shipowners and captains of that time, the exhibition also includes data on consular letters and shipwreck reports.
A particularly impressive part of the exhibition content are the drawings by Luigi Divari, artist, expert on Adriatic navigation and vessel typologies and collaborator of the Maritime Museum of Pesaro, whose Director Maria Lucia De Nicolò also took part in the exhibition’s preparation as well as in the project. Through Divari’s vivid drawings, the exhibition visitors will experience in a unique way as many as 62 fascinating types of vessels embodying the rich past of the Mediterranean Sea.
With the support of the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Youth, the CROMARESHIP project has been running since 2021 through the cooperation of Croatian researchers and experts with their colleagues from Italy, Montenegro and Greece, where the exhibition is expected to be put on after its presentation to the audience in Zagreb.
The exhibition’s opening programme starts at 14.00, in the Library’s grand lobby.