Galerija Klovićevi Dvori

Galerija Klovićevi dvori is located inside the building of the old Jesuit monastery whose development started in the first half of the 17th century and continued in phases until the second decade of the 18th century. The building itself consists of two historically and architecturally different parts: the monastery from the 17th century and a medieval city tower built inside the very building of the monastery and presently hardly distinguishable.

The tower is located at the northeast corner of the complex whose east side leans directly on the city walls. It was built in the 13th century and thickness of its walls (two meters and square layout) corresponds entirely with the other towers of Gradec: Lotrščak, Popov toranj and the Stone Gate tower. Former Jesuit complex owes its beauty to decorative elements both on the façade and inside the yard. The stone portal on the western façade is a work of a renaissance artist whereas the second portal, nowadays serving as the main entrance to the Gallery, belongs to the period of High Baroque (1783-1784). A synthesis of renaissance and baroque elements resulted in an extraordinary harmonic solution. The baroque portal became one of the main symbols of the Galerija Klovićevi dvori. Unique features of the complex are also apparent at the very entrance to the atrium whose contemplative elements simply invite visitors to stay.

The present form of the building is the work of two architects, Vahid Hodžić and Igor Emili, in charge of its adaption to a museum in the period 1973-1984. The interior underwent numerous interventions, second floor was added to the west façade and the ground of the main yard was lowered. These interventions transformed the Upper Town’s biggest and most beautiful edifice into a museum which purpose it preserved until the present date. From 1982 the adapted building of the Jesuit monastery houses the Museum, initially planned as the exhibition space for Ante and Wiltrud Topić Mimara’s collection of artifacts. The Museum started using new market strategies in designing exhibitions and complementary programmes in line with the international trends. In 1984 The Ancient Chinese Culture, the most successful exhibition in the first decade of this institution’s work attracted several hundred thousand visitors. The next year the Museum expanded to the Lotrščak Tower, initially used as an info-point and a souvenir shop and later as the exhibition space for small-scale exhibitions primarily showing the works of young artists. In 1987 the Museum moved to a new location at Roosevelt’s Square where Mimara’s art collection got its official premises named the Museum and Gallery Center (Muzejsko-galerijski centar). The complex already comprised an edifice constructed on the city walls and designed by Igor Emili as a curator’s working space and later on adapted for monographic exhibitions and named the Gradec Gallery. In the late 1990s the Museum and Gallery Center dissolved into two separate institutions: Galerija Klovićevi dvori and the Mimara Museum. In the beginning of 1999 the complex located at the Upper Town, still in charge of the Gradec Gallery, Lotrščak Tower and Vila Arko, started functioning as the public institution Galerija Klovićevi dvori.

Galerija Klovićevi dvori today stands as one of the biggest institutions operating as a museum and gallery space. It is also one of the most successful ones in Croatia. Its production of about thirty exhibitions a year and thirty three years long history reached the number of 2000 realized exhibitions in total. It also holds six individual art collections: the Herman Collection, Crnobori Collection, Perčić Collection, Kopač Collection, Restek Collection and Collection of donated artifacts. All the collections are preserved and often used for various projects. Galerija Klovićevi dvori installs exhibitions presenting the works belonging to the most famous international heritage, Croatian history of art as well as contemporary art. It organizes complex projects involving the national and international heritage presented to both Croatian and European visitors. The Gallery is opened to all forms of visual culture and various audience profiles. Some of the most successful projects over the past few years include exhibitions like Van Gogh, Mondrian and The Hague School Paintings; Dora Maar and Picasso: Touching with Looks; Pompeii – Life in the shadow of Vesuvius; Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese – the Masters of Renaissance; Edgar Degas- sculptures; Julije Klović –The Renaissance Miniaturist Master; Masterpieces from the Picasso Paris Museum...