Museum of Nin Antiquities

Why it is worth your time

The museum of Nin antiquities is small in volume and enormous in content: a collection that on one floor retells three millennia, from Liburnian Aenona through the Roman municipium to the capital of Croatian princes. The stars of the display are the reconstructions of two early Croatian ships of the 11th century found in Nin's lagoon: the condura were fast, shallow and nimble, perfect for the lagoon and the shallows, and their replicas, one in the museum, one at times on the sea, make Nin the only place where early Croatian shipping is seen live.

Beside them go Liburnian jewellery, Roman daily life with grave stelae and glass, and stone fragments with interlace from the age when Nin was the seat of court and bishop. Everything is clear, bilingual and toured in an hour; the perfect order reads: first the museum, then the Holy Cross and a walk through the core, for with the story in one's head the small town grows to its true size. For children the ships are usually the peak; ask the curators for details, Nin's museum people love their story and tell it gladly.