The Zagreb City Museum opens an exhibition about Sljeme and the city’s long connection with Medvednica
On 15 May 2026, the Zagreb City Museum opens the exhibition To Sljeme! Stories from Zagreb Mountain, dedicated to Medvednica as a space of recreation, hiking, social gathering and urban identity. According to the announcement by the Zagreb City Museum, the exhibition opens at 6 p.m. and will be available to visitors until 20 September 2026. It is a new temporary exhibition that observes Zagreb’s mountain through everyday habits, historical documents, museum objects and personal memories of people who, for decades, sought rest, movement and a sense of belonging to the space above the city on Sljeme. The author of the exhibition is Milena Bušić, and the available announcements state that the design is by Studio Rašić + Vrabec. The exhibition does not remain only with the natural features of Medvednica, but seeks to show how trails, mountain lodges, associations, postcards, objects and testimonies shaped the collective image of Sljeme.
The story of a mountain that became part of the city’s everyday life
Medvednica, Zagreb Mountain and Sljeme are often used in public speech almost as synonyms, although Sljeme denotes the highest peak of Medvednica. According to data from Medvednica Nature Park, this mountain is a rare example of a protected natural area that directly enters the space of a large city, which is why natural, cultural and everyday values constantly overlap there. Precisely this proximity is one of the reasons why Medvednica, over the decades, became much more than an excursion site: it is a space for walks, hiking, skiing, family outings, school trips, sports training, social encounters and personal rituals. In the exhibition announcement, the Zagreb City Museum emphasizes that the project deals with recreational and social activities on Medvednica, with special emphasis on mountaineering. In this way, Sljeme is presented as a place where the history of the city can be read from a different perspective, above its traffic, economic and political everyday life.
The exhibition begins with the question of how people reached Sljeme over time and how the city’s relationship with the mountain changed. According to the Zagreb City Museum’s publication, the display then continues with a presentation of the first hikers and the beginnings of hiking infrastructure from the end of the 19th century, and then deals with facilities for rest and refreshment and the activities of hiking associations on Medvednica. Such an approach indicates that visitors are not presented only with a chronology of events, but also with the development of habits: from early hiking ventures and organized associations to the broader culture of weekend excursions and stays in nature. In that sense, Sljeme became a place where recreation, civic leisure, health ideals, hiking discipline and the need to escape the city met. For visitors who come to Zagreb because of the exhibition or other cultural content, accommodation offers in Zagreb can also be a useful starting point, especially if they want to connect a visit to the Museum with a trip to Medvednica.
Archival material, objects and personal testimonies
One of the important particularities of the exhibition is the combination of museum and archival sources with personal stories. According to the announcement by the Zagreb City Museum, the exhibition relies on archival, library and museum material, but also on individual testimonies and donated objects. Such an exhibition model makes it possible for the history of Medvednica to be shown not only through institutions and official data, but also through the experiences of hikers, excursionists and citizens who built a personal relationship with the mountain. In a museological sense, this is important because objects that were part of someone’s outing, hiking equipment or family memory can open a broader social context. A hiking membership card, an old photograph, a postcard, a notebook, a piece of equipment or an oral testimony often speaks about a time just as convincingly as an official document.
The available announcements indicate that the exhibition pays special attention to the beginnings and development of organized hiking, the founding of hiking associations, deserving individuals and hiking infrastructure. This framework is important because organized hiking in Croatia has a long tradition. The Croatian Mountaineering Association states that the founding meeting of the Croatian Mountaineering Society was held on 15 October 1874 in the building of the National Museum in Zagreb. This information places Zagreb’s and Croatia’s hiking history in the broader European context of the 19th century, when mountaineering developed at the same time as a scientific, patriotic, recreational and social movement. During that period, nature was increasingly viewed as a space of research, health and education, and hiking associations became places where people of different occupations and interests gathered.
Medvednica between nature, sport and heritage
Medvednica was declared a nature park in 1981, and according to data from the Nature Protection system and publicly available data about the park, the protected area today covers 17,938 hectares. These data help us understand why the story of Sljeme cannot be reduced only to recreation or nostalgia. The mountain above Zagreb is at the same time a protected area, a forest landscape, a cultural-historical area and one of the most recognizable points of the city’s geography. Medvednica Nature Park emphasizes that natural and cultural-historical values intertwine there, which can be seen in the relationship between forests, trails, mountain lodges, forts, mines, chapels and excursion sites. The highest peak, Sljeme, is listed in numerous professional and tourist sources at a height of about 1033 metres, and it is precisely this peak that became the symbol of the mountain in everyday speech.
For Zagreb, Medvednica is especially important because it is accessible from city districts and connected with different forms of movement. People reached it on foot, by public transport, by car, by cable car and by combining several modes of travel, and the changes in getting to Sljeme are cited in the exhibition announcement as the initial topic. This also opens a broader question of the urban relationship with nature: as the city expanded, the way its residents used the mountain also changed. Sljeme simultaneously remained a place of hiking tradition and became accessible to a much broader public, including those who come to the mountain for a walk, lunch, a view, winter activities or a short break from everyday life. The exhibition can therefore also be interesting to visitors who do not consider themselves hikers, but recognize Medvednica as part of Zagreb’s living space.
Hiking associations as bearers of the culture of going into nature
The exhibition announcement particularly highlights the activities of hiking associations on Medvednica. These associations were important not only because they organized outings, but also because they built and maintained infrastructure, encouraged safer movement, developed a guide culture and created a network of people who experienced the mountain as a common good. Mountain lodges, trails, markings, excursions and social programmes shaped the way in which Medvednica became accessible to a wider public. In the history of such associations, changes in social values can also be traced: from the early enthusiasm of educated citizens and scientists to more mass forms of recreation in the 20th century. According to the available information, the exhibition seeks to present precisely this transition through material and personal stories.
Organized hiking in Croatia had a cultural dimension from the very beginning. In historical overviews, the Croatian Mountaineering Association emphasizes that the founding of the Croatian Mountaineering Society in 1874 marked the beginning of a structured mountaineering movement, and Zagreb had a central role in that history. Medvednica then, because of its proximity to the city, became a natural space for the development of hiking practice and excursion culture. This continuity explains why the exhibition does not speak only about the landscape, but also about the people who, through their visits, work and memories, turned it into part of urban heritage. The mountain is therefore not presented as a backdrop, but as an active space in which generations meet.
The Zagreb City Museum ahead of a major anniversary
The exhibition To Sljeme! Stories from Zagreb Mountain is part of the programme of the Zagreb City Museum, an institution that has an important place in preserving and interpreting Zagreb’s history. According to data from the Zagreb City Museum, the institution was founded in 1907 by the Brethren of the Croatian Dragon, and in 1997 the permanent display was opened in the renovated space. The Museum states that the permanent display presents Zagreb’s past from prehistory to the contemporary era, through chronologically and thematically organized units. The original data about the display emphasize that it is a portrait of the city in its political, ecclesiastical, economic, urban-planning, cultural and everyday aspects. The exhibition about Sljeme naturally fits into such a museum mission because it speaks about a space that is outside the narrower city centre, but deeply belongs to Zagreb’s history.
Next year, the Zagreb City Museum enters its 120th year since its foundation, which gives this exhibition additional institutional context. Temporary exhibitions of this kind complement the permanent display because they open topics that can be observed from several angles and through different types of material. Sljeme is, in that sense, a rewarding topic: it is at the same time a geographical point, a recreational space, a cultural sign, a childhood memory, a sports stage and a subject of mountaineering history. The museum approach makes it possible to connect these levels into one readable whole. The visitor thereby receives not only information about where people went and how they hiked, but also insight into how the feeling arose that Medvednica is the city’s “urban” mountain.
Exhibition available until 20 September
According to the Zagreb Tourist Board and the announcement by the Zagreb City Museum, the exhibition is in the programme from 15 May to 20 September 2026 at the Zagreb City Museum. The information published in the announcements confirms that it is an exhibition aimed at a broad audience, from visitors interested in Zagreb’s history to those attracted by hiking, recreation and the cultural heritage of Medvednica. Since it is an event that lasts several months, a visit to the Museum can be connected with a tour of the Upper Town area, the permanent display or a trip towards Medvednica. For those planning a longer stay in the city, especially during the summer months, accommodation offers in Zagreb can also be practical, regardless of whether they are coming primarily because of the museum, the mountain or the city’s broader cultural offer.
The exhibition about Sljeme comes at a time when the importance of accessible nature, the preservation of protected areas and the need for quality free time are increasingly discussed in public space. But its value lies not only in the topicality of these themes, but also in its ability to remind us how today’s habits developed gradually. Every trip to Medvednica rests on layers of earlier experiences: on the first organized excursions, the work of hiking associations, the construction of lodges, the arrangement of trails, the development of transport and personal stories passed on in families and among friends. With this exhibition, the Zagreb City Museum does not present Sljeme as a distant peak, but as a place where the history of the city continues beyond its streets. That is why To Sljeme! Stories from Zagreb Mountain is not only an exhibition about a mountain, but also a story about the way in which a city recognizes its own landscape.
Sources:
- Zagreb City Museum – announcement of the exhibition “To Sljeme! Stories from Zagreb Mountain”, opening date, duration and description of the thematic framework (link)
- Zagreb Tourist Board / InfoZagreb – calendar announcement of the event and confirmation of the exhibition dates (link)
- Medvednica Nature Park – official description of Medvednica as a space in which natural and cultural-historical values intertwine (link)
- Nature Protection – data on the declaration of Medvednica Nature Park, the area of the protected area and basic natural features (link)
- Croatian Mountaineering Association – data on the founding meeting of the Croatian Mountaineering Society in 1874 and the historical context of organized hiking (link)
- Zagreb City Museum – data on the foundation of the museum, the permanent display and the presentation of Zagreb’s history (link)