(Zadar, Croatia)
As Grant and I discover all the nooks and crannies that make up Old Town Zadar, we had yet to visit the Museum of Ancient Glass. Surprisingly, Zadar is home to a handful of well done up museums, all within walking distance of each other. And although I didn’t know what to expect, and actually thought this museum would be a bit boring as it’s all about glass, I found myself pleasantly surprised.
The museum is in an old Renaissance era building that had been newly renovated and sits on the fortress wall surrounding the city. The museum displays are very clean and modern-looking.
Many bottles and ancient jars were dug up throughout Dalmatia and these artifacts were surprisingly well preserved and in pretty good condition. The exhibit takes you through the history of glassware and it was great to see the intricacies of glass craft during Roman times. These people do not seem in want of luxuries in the apothecary container department. If you visit the museum early enough, in our case by 2:00 in the afternoon, you can enjoy a glass making demonstration on the 2nd floor.
My favorite part of our visit to the museum, apart from the glass making demonstration, was the display describing how the various colors of glass is created. All glass requires quartz sand, soda, lime, and heat to make but adding various minerals create rich hues of color. For example, adding no minerals causes glass to be clear but adding these minerals yield these results:
copper = green and red
manganese = purple
silver = yellow
gold = ruby red
cobalt = blue
Depending on how much minerals you add, you get the range from completely clear in color to completely opaque (actually resembling plastic). I was impressed that people over 2 thousand years ago were this crafty and artistically inclined.
I recommend this museum for people who are interested in glass or ancient artifacts, particularly of the Roman era, as well as anyone having a couple of extra hours to spend in Old Town Zadar. Grant and I enjoyed our visit here and we learned a lot about the lifestyles of ancient people in Dalmatia. We weren’t allowed to take photos of the glass displays so these are not included.
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