Travel Adventures: The Museum of Broken Relationships

Wednesday 6 July 2016

The Museum of Broken Relationships - Zagreb, Croatia

The Museum of Broken Relationships

"What Becomes of the Brokenhearted?" is a lyric from a song of the same name by Jimmy Ruffin (also covered by other groups but we won't dwell on that).

In Zagreb, Croatia the Museum of Broken Relationships may have an answer to that.

What's inside?

This unusual museum houses a collection of items donated by people who have experienced a broken relationship in their lives. The museum then displays these exhibits along with a short description card.

The exhibits ranged from small items like Champagne corks, necklaces through to larger items like an unused wedding dress.

Introduction to the Museum Collection

At the entrance to the museum, the museum's founder explains that a lot of museums cover world history, and that this museum wanted to focus purely on individual history. The museum's success shows that they were on to something, and the lady behind the museum counter told me that they receive new exhibit donations from newly broken up couples every day.

Is it depressing?

The exhibits and inscriptions from each broken relationship cover a wide range of emotions. Some are sad, some are funny, and some are a little well... intense (see Axe below).

The museum staff regularly rotate the exhibits and I think overall that they have done a good job on balancing the exhibits to ensure that it isn't all sad there. I would say that the experience is more poignant than depressing.