Museum of Ancient Glass

The Museum of Ancient Glass occupies a restored 19th-century palace that once belonged to the Cosmacendi family, on the edge of Zadar's Old Town. The museum was founded in 2006 and formally opened to the public on 5 May 2009, after the historicist building was renovated and extended with a modern annex built specifically to house the collection.

Its holdings are unusual for a museum this size: more than 5,000 glass objects dating from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD, most of them excavated from Roman-era sites across the wider Zadar region. About 1,500 complete pieces — bottles, cups, jewelry, urns and other everyday and ceremonial objects — are on permanent display, arranged into eight thematic sections that trace how glass was produced, traded and used in daily life under Rome.

Beyond the display cases, the museum runs recurring glassblowing and glass-jewelry workshops where visitors can watch artisans reproduce ancient techniques using the free-blowing method, and its shop sells glass replicas and books on the collection.

After an hour or two indoors with two-thousand-year-old glassware, many visitors head back out toward the harbor a short walk away — a reminder that exploring Croatia's coast by boat is as much a part of a Zadar trip as its museums.