homeland war museum dubrovnik

In an attempt to preserve the historical memory of the Homeland War for posterity, in 2007 the City of Dubrovnik approved the Project on Establishment of the Homeland War Museum with the design solution for its permanent display as developed by Varina Jurica Turk and Mišo Đuraš, and also made the decision to house it in the premises of the Imperial Fortress on Srđ Hill the symbol of the city's heroic defence in 1991. As part of the preparatory works on the future permanent display, the same two individuals organized the thematic exhibition Dubrovnik in the Homeland War, 1991-1995, which was opened on Victory and National Thanksgiving Day, 5 August 2008. It was made possible by many years of systematic work involving the collection, protection, analysis and presentation of museum materials which testify to this exceptionally important period of recent history in Dubrovnik and Croatia as a whole. In this manner, all museum collections were enriched, becoming an inescapable wellspring of data for all of those who wish to engage in professional and scholarly research into the Homeland War. The gathering of museum materials conducted in the first half of 2008 by Homeland War Museum project leader Varina Jurica Turk in cooperation with the ZNG Dubrovnik 1991 Association and defenders who distinguished themselves in Dubrovniks defence was particularly important. Through a well-planned campaign, a vast quantity of museum materials was gathered and processed, and thus preserved from destruction and oblivion; it consists of several thousand original wartime photographs and negatives, hundreds of hours of video footage, various items and documents. In the meantime, work continued on the expansion of the museum collections and the now already permanent exhibition Dubrovnik in the Homeland War, 1991-1995 with new content, even though the planned restoration of the Imperial Fortress had not even begun.