Museum of Broken Relationships

The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia is easy to find.  Just head up to the upper town and follow the signs.

Here is a nice summary of the idea behind the museum, which apparently began as an exhibit but was so well received that the decision was made, wisely, to turn it into a permanent museum.

This is one of the first exhibits I saw, and it grabbed me right away.  I guess it's a duh statement to say that a museum devoted to broken relationships would be deeply personal, both knowing it and feeling it are two very different things.  It makes you think about the physical and emotional artefacts we leave behind as we pass through other people's lives.  What's that line from Lucinda Williams - "all I ask is don't tell anybody the secrets I told you."

This picture was written by someone from Bloomington, Indiana (the state where I grew up), and even though my sister Beth graduated from Indiana University she denies that she sent in the picture.

Not surpsingly there were several items representative of the more physical side of relationships, including an utterly bizarre set of styrofoam breasts.

Some of the items were actually very artistic, including this one where a woman glued a love letter to a piece of glass and then smashed it.

A lock of hair from a woman who, in the despair after a failed relationship, cut off all of her hair.

I'm a big fan of the Lonely Planet series of travel guides, and heaven knows how many of them I own now.  In fact, I think I have multiple copies for some of the countries.  That said, I'm an even bigger fan of just following my instincts when I'm overseas and seeing where I end up.  While walking around Zagreb I came across a sign for the Museum of Broken Relationships, which, for some unkown reason, didn't end up in my Lonely Planet Guide to Croatia - and it should have.  Initially I thought it might be one of those novelty museums, such as the Seriel Killer Museum in Florence (although visiting there did give me the opportunity to buy my nephew Garrett the absolutely coolest t-shirt of all time).  As it turns out the Museum of Broken Relationships is an amazing museum and has received several awards/recognitons for being the most innovative museum in Europe. Essentially it is a collection of donated items from broken relationships, along with short and highly personal back-stories.  Some of the items and related stories are very funny, while others are more artistic - and many are just heart-breaking.  Granted, it's not as magnificent as the Dental School Museum that Sanford and I stumbled across, and couldn't get into, along US 50 in the middle of Ohio, the Museum of Broken Relationships has become one of my all-time favorite museums.  I even bought the museum guide, which I almost never do.  So, if you're in Zagreb - and you should by all means go to Zagreb - definitely include a side trip to the museum.

Broken relationships create a lot of shrapnel, including this innocent garden gnome who was in the wrong place at the worng time.

This ax is from a woman whose female lover left her for another woman.  She used it to destroy one piece of her ex-lover's furniture every day, and by the time her ex returned to claim her now destroyed furniture she felt a lot better.

I found this one to be both devastating and also redemptive, which I guess you could say about the entire museum.