Location: Gallery of the Split City Museum

Dates: September 4 – October 15, 2025

To mark the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Monument to Marko Marulić, the Ivan Meštrović Museums have prepared an exhibition entitled “Meštrović’s Monument to Marko Marulić”, which will open on Thursday, September 4, at 11:30 a.m. in the Gallery of the Split City Museum.

The exhibition is organized in partnership with the Split City Museum, where it is hosted, with the support of Split-Dalmatia County, the City of Split, and OTP Bank. The opening program will feature representatives of the organizers and sponsors.

The exhibition’s curator is Zorana Jurić Šabić, senior curator of the Meštrović Gallery; the exhibition design and graphic identity are by Viktor Popović; the illustrations are by Valts Čibals; and the video is by Dragan Đokić from Studio Baranda. The exhibition is also accompanied by an educational program prepared and led by Iris Marinović, senior curator of the Meštrović Gallery.

The Monument to Marko Marulić, a work by Ivan Meštrović, was ceremonially unveiled on July 26, 1925. Public sculptures and monuments represent a significant part of the sculptor’s oeuvre, and this monument is one of the rare examples that did not spark criticism or controversy regarding its location. Meštrović’s monument was erected in front of the Baroque Milesi Palace to mark the 400th anniversary of Marulić’s death.

With this exhibition at the Gallery of the Split City Museum, the Ivan Meštrović Museums commemorate the centenary of the installation of a monument that still adorns Radić Brothers Square (colloquially known as Fruit Square), while also highlighting Meštrović’s act of donating this imposing sculpture to the city of Split, enriching its public space with works of art.

The exhibition presents Meštrović’s design drawings and sketches for the monument, plaster and bronze busts of Marko Marulić from the collections of the Meštrović Atelier in Zagreb and the Split City Museum, and several bilingual panels that tell the story of the creation and significance of one of Split’s most famous monuments. In addition, the exhibition features a video recorded shortly before its installation, showing the monument’s coexistence with residents and visitors for whom it is an essential landmark when discovering the city. An illustrative work using mixed media also offers a contemporary reflection on cultural and touristic consumption. Through this approach, the exhibition not only preserves memory but also reaffirms the relevance of cultural content in public space and the city’s identity.

The aim of the exhibition is primarily to mark the 100th anniversary of the Monument to Marko Marulić, one of Split’s most recognizable symbols. Indirectly, it also highlights the life and work of Ivan Meštrović, one of Croatia’s most influential artists, who left a lasting mark on the cultural and artistic life of Split. He gifted the city his residence in Meje along with the sacral-artistic complex Kaštilac Crikvine, while enriching it with public monuments and sculptures that today form part of Split’s distinctive identity – a city to which Meštrović always returned during his lifetime and in which he remains permanently present through his works.

Gallery opening hours: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.