|About the museum:
The museum was founded in 1955 as a museum of the National Liberation Struggle and socialist revolution; in 1990 its activities extended to the field of history. It is situated in the centre of Pula, in the Kaštel fortress, which was built by the authorities of the Republic of Venice for defensive purposes. The fortress, designed by French military engineer Antoine de Ville, was built from 1630 to 1633.
The holdings of the museum include more than 50,000 items of cultural and historical value, created in the time period between the the 15th century and the present. The museum's main areas of interest are the history of the city of Pula, the mediaeval history of Istria, and the history of the Modern Age in Istria.
Maps of Istria made by famous European cartographers, Valvasor's panoramas of Istrian towns, and a very valuable panorama of the city of Poreč by Erhard Reuwich, made between 1486 and 1502, stand out among the exhibits. Decorations, medals, plaques, certificates, awards, and emblems reflect the historical trends and the various states which have alternated in the role of ruler over the territory of Istria from the 16th century to the present.
Numerous and diverse objects from the fields of pharmacy, education, and the activities of individual companies attest to everyday urban life in Pula and Istria between the 18th and 20th centuries.
The holdings related to the maritime and shipbuilding tradition in Pula and Istria between the 18th and the 20th centuries include: pieces of cutlery from the Pula Naval Casino; old shipbuilding tools dated to the late 19th century, used in the “K.u. K. Seearsenal“ (Imperial and Royal) naval base in Pula; and utility items discovered during investigative scientific expeditions conducted at two protected underwater sites (the site of the Austro-Hungarian passenger steamship Baron Gautsch and the site of the Italian destroyer Cesare Rossarol).
Particularly valuable are maritime flags of the Austrian Lloyd and Austro-Hungarian merchant fleet, naval flags of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, and the German Empire, and flags from countries that have had their naval bases in the area of southern Istria throughout its turbulent history.
The museum also stores more than 5,000 photographs and postcards, films, and video recordings, with additional materials about the public life of Pula and Istria, ethnographic materials, and other items.
The four casemates on the eastern side of the fortress house a selection of the museum's holdings: period furniture, Art Nouveau glassware, souvenirs from the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, pieces of naval officers' and non-commissioned officers' cutlery, gunsmith Pavao Bačuga’s sailor's chest dating from 1868, a docking book, blueprints of the warships built in the Pula Arsenal, and a display of the pharmacy from the former Imperial and Royal Naval Hospital.
The only preserved boat of the TOP-Topo type, once a typical vessel in the northern Adriatic (built early in the 20th century, sailed until 1974), is exhibited in the courtyard.