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KUMROVEC
About 10 km upriver from Klanjec, the village of KUMROVEC is renowned both as the best of Croatia's museum-villages and as the birthplace of the father of communist Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito. The simple peasant house in which Tito was born was turned into a museum during his own lifetime, while the surrounding properties were rebuilt and restored in the ensuing decades to provide an example of what an early twentieth-century Zagorje village looked like. Those who remember Tito with affection still collect here on May 4, the anniversary of his death, and on the weekend preceding May 25, Tito's official birthday.
(Source: http://www.roughguides.com/)
The restored and reconstructed buildings include 25 residential houses, 9 farm buildings and 8 smaller structures (2 corn sheds, 2 pigsties, and 4 wells), covering a total area of 12,640 square meters. The museum holdings include 2,800 exhibits the majority of which are permanently on show.
(Source: http://www.mdc.hr/kumrovec/eng/povijest/povijest.html)
The 15 permanent ethnographic displays and the two historical ones provide insight into the traditional ways of life, old customs, handicrafts, and trades some of which have long become forgotten. The visitors are also introduced to historical figures and events connected to Kumrovec and the former Klanjec county at the turn of the 19th century.
(Source: http://www.mdc.hr/kumrovec/eng/povijest/povijest.html)
The most significant criterion for revitalisation was the authenticity of the structure and its ethnographic, historical and architectural value. Special attention was paid to preservation of the original appearance and beauty of the local landscape, the main goal being to restore the village to the condition it had at the turn of the 19th century.
(Source: http://www.mdc.hr/kumrovec/eng/povijest/povijest.html)
The most extensive restoration and reconstruction work in the Old Village took place between 1979 and 1985. It included reconstruction of the old road and the stone bridge as well as regulation of the Skrnik stream which runs through the village and flows into the nearby Sutla river.
(Source: http://www.mdc.hr/kumrovec/eng/povijest/povijest.html)
Houses the Kumrovec families refused to live in under specific conditions as set by the museum were purchased from their owners, whereas some farm buildings and their grounds have been preserved in their original function and are still used by their owners who live in interpolated houses in the southern peripheral region of the Staro Selo Museum. Living today in the reconstructed old town centre of Kumrovec are several local families. Revival and presentation of the rural way of life thus helps dispel the static quality of permanent museum displays. All facilities have been reconstructed "in situ", which means that not a single house, well, pigsty or corn shed was brought from another location, but that all were reconstructed on their original foundations, so that today they can be found on the same location at which they stood in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Old crafts have been revived through schools and courses and for some years now the museum has been co-operating with masters of old trades and handicrafts who, as a part of museum displays, demonstrate to the visitors their skills in making pottery, wooden toys or blacksmith's products, including shoeing, as one of the biggest attractions for young visitors.
(Source: http://www.mdc.hr/kumrovec/eng/povijest/povijest.html)
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