6 Best Sights in Zagreb and Environs, Croatia

The Krapina Neanderthal Museum is located near Hušnjakovo Hill, the world-famous archaeological site of the Krapina Neanderthals, and its architecture evokes the habitat of these prehistoric people. Displays provide insight into who these early Neanderthals were, how they lived, and more broadly into the region's geology and history.

Museum exhibits here range all the way from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages. Pride of place is given to the Vučedol Dove, a three-legged ceramic dove found near Vukovar in Slavonia dating back to the 4th millennium BC, and a piece of linen bearing the longest known text in ancient Etruscan writing. The courtyard features a collection of stone relics from Roman times. The museum also runs the Archaeological Park Andautonia, an ancient Roman town with well-preserved ruins located in the modern-day village of Šćitarjevo, a 20-minute drive from Zagreb center. At the time of this writing, the museum sometimes offers temporary exhibitions on its first floor. The permanent collection and the rest of the museum building are currently closed for renovations, with no reopening date announced.  Call ahead if you plan to visit to see what's happening.

Varaždin's city museum is composed of multiple departments, including Archaeology, History, Ethnography, and more, and is housed in three buildings: the Culture and History Department in the Stari Grad (Old Town) fortress; the Gallery of Old and Contemporary Masters in Sermage Palace, and the Entomology Collection in Herzer Palace. The latter is one of the museum's highlights, with a fascinating presentation of some 50,000 different insect specimens.

Although the labor camps at Jasenovac were razed after World War II, a memorial park was eventually established at the site, along with a museum featuring photographs and other exhibits related to the memorial. Current estimates are that somewhere between 77,000 and 97,000 people—mostly Serbs, Jews, Roma, and Croatian antifascists—perished at this string of five camps on the banks of the Sava River between 1941 and 1945 from exhaustion, illness, cold weather, and murder.

Well worth a visit for anyone interested in urban design, this museum traces the city's most important historical, economic, political, social, and cultural events from medieval times to the present day. Exhibits include detailed scale models of how the city has evolved, as well as sections devoted to the old trade guilds, domestic life, and sacred art. The museum also hosts a range of cool temporary exhibits year-round.

Located in a pretty streamside park by the square, this museum tells the story of the town's past. It sits in a manor in which members of the 19th-century Croatian National Revival once gathered and is also the spot where Ferdo Livadić's and Ljudevit Gaj's song "Croatia Has Not Yet Fallen" was first sung (this later became the anthem of the movement). The museum warrants a quick 20-minute walk-through, especially if you're a history buff; it tells the story of Samobor's past chronologically, across two floors, including a geological viewpoint, Roman times, the development of local crafts and the famous Samoborski Fašnik carnival, and 20th-century events.