Collection manager: Gordana Milaković, senior curator
Types of objects: postal cards (greeting, illustrated, advertising, military), postcards (propaganda advertising, official), potpourri postcards, Leporello postcards, miniature postcards, Quodlibet postcards and photo postcards
The holdings of the collection may be viewed upon prior announcement to the Museum on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12.00 - 14.30.
Countless motifs are preserved on the old postcards: panoramas of all Istrian cities and towns as well as of numerous villages from the beginning of the 20th century, scenes from urban and rural life, streets, squares, trams, railways, traditional garments, monuments, warships, the First and the Second World War, the development of tourism ... etc. Most of the collection belongs to the period from the late 19th century to the year 1918, while a smaller part comprises the period until the end of the 1960s.
Numerous monuments and examples of residential and public architecture of virtually all towns and villages in Istria have been preserved only on postcards. A particularly important section is represented by the collection of 1500 postal cards and photo postcards with motifs of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in Pula (fleet of war, scenes from the Navy sailors’ life).
The value of this collection is in its extremely rich holdings, which represent an indispensable source for numerous conservation and restoration projects in Istria and for the study of the cultural and historical heritage of Istria in general.
