Krapina Neanderthal Museum

In 1899 a sandstone rock shelter on a hill at the edge of Krapina began producing Neanderthal bones, and the excavation that followed yielded one of the largest collections of Neanderthal remains found anywhere. The museum built beside the site in 2010 is set into the hillside behind a curved wall of concrete and glass, and inside a spiral ramp takes you from the origin of the universe down through evolution to the people who lived at this shelter. It leans heavily on life-size reconstructions, film and sound rather than cases of bone. The excavation itself is a short walk uphill behind the building.

What you actually see

• The spiral exhibition ramp - a single descending route from cosmology to the Krapina finds.
• The reconstructed family - life-size Neanderthal figures staged in a rock shelter setting.
• The Hušnjakovo site - the actual excavation uphill behind the museum, with figures placed on the slope.
• The building - a curved concrete and glass front built into the hillside.

When to go

Year-round, and it is indoors, which makes it useful on a wet Zagorje day. Weekday afternoons avoid the school groups that fill the ramp in term time. Allow two hours. The path to the outdoor site is muddy after rain and slippery in frost. The museum closes on Mondays.

Honest expectations

It is designed for families and school parties, with a lot of theatre and audio that some adults find overdone and thin on actual science. Original fossils are largely not on display; you are looking at casts and reconstructions. The route is one-way with no shortcuts once you start. Krapina itself is a small town with little else, so treat this as a stop rather than a destination.

Nearby

Trakošćan Castle and the Zagorje spa towns are within an hour by road.