The Krapina Neanderthals Museum is
the most famous site of Neanderthal man in the world due to its rich and most
varied fossil collection. It is protected as the first paleontological nature
monument in Croatia.
The Museum opened
in 2010. The architecture and display were made according to a project
conceived and realized by Željko Kovačić and Jakov Radovčić. A fascinating
journey into the past helps you understand why Krapina is one of the most
famous Palaeolithic sites in the world.
The exposition contains elaborate multimedia and
settings which bring the story of Man closer to the public. Visitors meet
different themes in each segment of the display trying to follow the timeline
of creation.
The site in Krapina is a story about the beginning
of humanity, about distant prehistoric times, still unveiled and unexplored.
About nine hundred human fossil bones, numerous stone tools from the
Palaeolithic era and fossil remains of animals have been found in the layers of
the cave. This site is about 130 thousand years old.
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Information and Reservations
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Educational Programs
Besides the
permanent exhibition, visitors of The Krapina Neanderthal Museum have the
opportunity to participate in various workshops and other educational programs.
In creative and fun ways participants can learn about the prehistoric world of
fossils, the evolution of life on Earth and the secrets of prehistoric man from
Krapina.
Winter Workshops and
Play Group
Program consist of art workshops on
prehistory - painting, drawing and clay modeling, watching films about
Neanderthals, the ice age and dinosaurs, playing with puzzles and memory cards.
Children Geological
Laboratory
Every participant can research
original fossils with a microscope, loupe and other instruments, just like real
geologists and paleontologists.
Animals at the Time of
the Krapina Neanderthal Participants
make clay models of rhinoceros, cave bears, giant deer and other extinct animal
species that lived in this era.
Making Neanderthal
Clothing
Learn how to make clothes without
modern appliances, with wooden needle and sharp stone.
Creation of a
Geological Column How
to prepare a geological column out of paper. After coloring and cutting
drawings of different life species, they are inserted in the suitable
geological periods they represent, learning in the process about biological
evolution and how life had developed from trilobites to Neanderthals.
Evolve… and Don’t Be
Angry
A fun educational game made on
illustrated canvas. With playing figures in the shape of ten different
prehistoric species and cubes, participants are passing geological periods,
disasters like ice ages and the impact of meteorites.
Hunting After making their own prehistoric
spear in the way of Neanderthals, with volcanic rock tuf asa scraper,
participants are throwing spears into thatched targets of rhinoceros and other
animals hunted by Neanderthals.
Making Stone Tools and
Lighting a Fire In
this workshop participants can see a demonstration of lightning a fire with friction
of wood as well as making stone scrapers and sharp points for their spears.
The Geological Summer
School
has been in existence since the year
2000. Participants can learn about prehistory, geology and paleontology in art
workshops, using work sheets, in discussions and especially in fieldwork where
they research and collect fossils, rocks and minerals. In the field they use
geological tools and equipment, and in the laboratory they use microscopes and
loupe, just like a real geologist.
Special Guided Tours Every visitor in the group is
filling up the map with work sheets about the main topics of the permanent
exhibition: historical ideas about the human origin, evolution and the world of
Neanderthals.
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The Museums of Krapina-Zagorje in Croatia
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