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History

The Cube building is a location of the City Museum of Rijeka for temporary exhibition programs and various cultural events.

It was built as a modern museum facility of the former Museum of the People’s Revolution, which operated from 1961 to 1994 when it was renamed to the City Museum of Rijeka.

Since its founding in 1961, the Museum of the People’s Revolution operated in the house of Count Laval Nugent on Trsat, but after its founding, a new museum building was needed for a permanent exhibition. In 1973 the cornerstone was laid, and in 1976 the Museum of the People’s Revolution was moved to a modern museum building with a permanent exhibition and established museum collections. The building was built next to the Governor’s Palace, according to the design of architect Neven Šegvić. The old and new architecture – a historicist palace and a modern museum building – met in one courtyard. For this achievement, Šegvić won the 1976 Republic and Federal Award of Contest for the best architectural achievement in Croatia.

Neven Šegvić, study 1972.
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Neven Šegvić, urban sketches of the courtyard, 1972.
Appearance

The ground floor was realized as a flexible addition to the permanent exhibition, intended for temporary exhibitions alongside the multimedia hall for cultural events.

The first floor and two gallery parts are intended for permanent exhibition in five thematic units covering the period from the end of the 18th century to 1975, which were at the time presented in avant-garde ways of exhibiting. The material is exhibited in modern illuminated showcases, showcases for delicate paper material, on wall surfaces for enlargements that extend through two gallery spaces, and in glass walls and cubes of different heights. The visitors’ area has also been arranged. The permanent museum exhibition was created in order to make the material available to the public with all museological standards, while the new Museum should become a center of gathering and exchange of ideas in which various experts will find their place alongside the exhibitions.

The fact that the Museum was built for the needs of a permanent exhibition without an adequate museum storeroom was reflected in the lack of places for storing old and newly collected museum material, especially with the establishment of the City Museum of Rijeka in 1994. Adaptation in 2002 resulted in two additional large spaces, on the second floor for the museum storeroom, and on the third floor for the exhibition activity.

The Cube benefits from a simple adaptation to museum exhibitions, scenery and displays. In the thirty years of operation of the Museum in the Cube, a large number of diverse exhibition programs were set up, accompanied by more or less complex scenography and displays, making the Cube a recognizable museum object in the city.

In 2019, the Museum building was entered in the Register of Cultural Property of the Republic of Croatia as a preventively protected facility.