Exhibition on Heidi, the iconic heroine of children’s literature, on view by 17 April
Opened on this year’s International Children’s Book Day, the Heidi: From a literary heroine to a global icon exhibition, jointly organised by the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) and The Heidiseum Foundation, will remain on view in the Library’s grand lobby by 17 April 2026.
After a welcome address by the NSK Director General Dr Ivanka Stričević, who thanked all the Library’s partners and collaborators in the exhibition’s preparation and emphasised the power which made the story of Heidi transcend the boundaries of Switzerland’s literature and become part of global cultural heritage, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation to the Republic of Croatia Her Excellency Beatrice Schaer also addressed the present visitors. Pointing out the exhibition’s contribution to the strengthening of cultural ties between Croatia and Switzerland, Ambassador Schaer particularly stressed the importance of maintaining continuity in this context.
As the representative of the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media, which, along with the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation to the Republic of Croatia and Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the Swiss Confederation, supported the exhibition, the Head of the Ministry’s Directorate for Archives, Libraries and Museums Anuška Deranja Crnokić also greeted the audience. She underscored the value of the exhibition not only for its original treatment of Heidi’s story, but for providing insight into Croatia’s well-established culture of reading, of which one of many evidences are Heidi’s numerous Croatian editions.
Heidi’s legacy and the importance of its promotion and preservation
Heidi’s legacy and its international relevance were presented by the founders of The Heidiseum Foundation, the President of its Board of Trustees Dr Peter Otto Büttner and the Foundation’s CEO Peter Polzin, who particularly underlined its importance in terms of uniting nations and connecting the world.
In a special presentation, a Professor at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Teacher Education Diana Zalar gave an overview of Heidi’s Croatian translations and its major stage adaptations in Croatia, bringing the attention of the audience to perspectives from which Spyri’s classic stands as an indispensable record of the importance of childhood and by extension of the fostering and preservation of children’s literature. Introducing a child’s emotions and inner world as a literary theme, it gave the world the child protagonist, a little girl, who not only shapes her destiny, but the destiny of everyone around her as well.
The iconic heroine’s story’s mark on Croatian and global culture
The exhibition gives a comprehensive overview of Johanna Spyri’s classic’s remarkable international success. Since the publication of its first volume in 1880, it has been translated into more than 70 languages, growing into a universal symbol of childhood and the power of nature, friendship, affection and hope.
A special section of the exhibition will present the response that Heidi elicited in Croatia and a selection of the novel’s as many as 67 Croatian editions preserved as part of the NSK collections, including those earliest.
Also, the exhibition visitors will be able to see Heidi’s editions in German, along with its translations preserved as part of the Heidiseum’s archive, whose status as a global legacy, along with that of the Johanna Spyri archive, maintained by the Swiss Institute for Children’s and Youth Media, was made official in 2023 through the archives’ inclusion in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
Showing how the novel was presented in various media and formats during almost 150 years since its appearance, in addition to Heidi’s illustrated and comic book editions the exhibition material will also include a wide variety of its adaptations, ranging from those for stage and screen to those AI-based.
The exhibition’s upcoming tour across Croatia
As a kind of an introduction into the marking in 2027 of the 200th anniversary of Johanna Spyri, Heidi’s literary mum, the exhibition was prepared to bring closer to new generations the story of an orphaned girl in the Swiss Alps always able to charm her way into bringing joy to everyone around her. At the same time, those already familiar with it will be reminded of its message, made all the more urgent by the growing and increasingly destructive conflicts the world has been facing in recent years.
Therefore, after closing at NSK, the exhibition will be put on in public and school libraries all across Croatia, providing a unique opportunity for visitors of all ages to get inspired by this all-time classic.
Photo: © NSK