Croatia

Partner Countries > Croatia

Croatia has valuable monuments ranging from prehistoric to present day, seven of which are under UNESCO protection on the world heritage list.

After the war (1991-1995) and massive damage to the heritage there was an impetus in restoration. At that time there were not enough expert teams and the relevant central institution was the Croatian Conservation Institute, but private initiative started to emerge as well.

By the end of the nineties two departments for conservation and restoration studies have been established in Split and Zagreb, followed by Dubrovnik in 2005. On the one side we have university trained graduate conservators-restorers, and on the other side the conservation division is reorganized and shows better in situ results.

However, the economic crisis effects employment and financing so that the heritage remains endangered to a great extent.

In 2014, there was a major flood in the area of Cvelferija (villages Gunja, Račinovci and Rajevo selo), and in 2020, in addition to being hit by Covid 19, there were several strong earthquakes in Zagreb and Petrinja that further and irreversibly damaged many protected cultural heritage in Croatia. Several valuable museums in Zagreb were severely damaged in this earthquake. Many artifacts are partially or completely damaged. Emergency rescue and storage interventions were carried out.

Croatian Conservators-Restorers’ Association, the national professional association of conservators and restorers has been established in 1994, but in the last few years, especially from 2010 on, has become proactive.

It is partly due to the issues that the members of the profession currently are faced with (changes in legislation, laws and by-laws regulating conditions for conservation and restoration activities), but we as a professional body try to recruit as many professionals as possible, especially students of conservation and restoration and newly graduates, and include them in the activities of the Association (by offering reduced membership fee, and from this year on, contact with the annual students’ conference).

In the past few years we have come a long way by bringing together colleagues from conservation community from all lines of work: public institutions, state institutions, freelance conservators-restorers, and conservators-restorers working as lecturers and mentors teaching in study programmes for conservation and restoration.

For the first time, we formulate ideas together and exchange opinions, and seek changes and improvements with joined forces.

The HRD advocates that a completed study in conservation-restoration should be a prerogative for engaging in our profession.

The key issue is that experts and professional associations are not participating in the process of drafting amendments to our relevant laws and by-laws, but we did our best in order to step up and enhance cooperation and problem-solving.

Our challenges are:
– Lack of internship availability,
– Discrepancy between ECCO guidelines and national legislation,
– Unfavourable economic conditions,
– Limitations on employment in government service,
– Limited financing of cultural heritage preservation,
– Lack of financial support from owners/custodians (sacral heritage).

Our primary tasks are to increase employability of graduate conservators-restorers, enhance cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and involvement of our professionals in relevant legislation processes.