REVIEW
MUSEUM
Lipa’s commitment
The Memorial
Centre Lipa
Remembers
Carlota Sánchez Vidal
Historian, University of Barcelona
T
he small village of Lipa is located in the municipality of Matulji, in the north-eastern
part of the county of Primorje-Gorski Kotar, just five kilometres from the border
between Croatia and Slovenia. This fact is a defining aspect of the identity of the
residents of Lipa, as demonstrated by a popular expression in the region: «We are not from
Mount Ćićarija, Istria, or from the Brkini Hills, whose citizens are our neighbours from the
Slovenian region; we are right on the border».
Throughout history, the village of Lipa and the surrounding region has been a strategic
territory because of two important routes that used to split there: the road that linked the
coast of Croatia to the inland and the road that joined Croatia to the European continent.
As a result, the region gained great geopolitical importance and has been the subject of
disputes at various times in its history.
The museum building itself also demonstrates Lipa’s geographical significance. In
1756, it became home to the region’s first post office. In 1885, the building became the
village’s first public school. By the end of the nineteenth century, the road that joins inland
Croatia to the coast no longer ran through Lipa and the village’s strategic importance
waned.
The Lipa museum has three floors and a basement. As a whole, these spaces were
designed in line with the principles of the ecomuseum concept, being seen as a community
museum. The local community’s cooperation in creating the programme or defining the
regional identity represented in the museum has constituted the essential mission of the
project, with the aim of creating new development opportunities for the region.
The white walls of the ground-floor room symbolise life, before and after the massacre
that took place on 30 April 1944. They tell the tale of the region’s cultural background, with
a continued settlement in the area from prehistoric times right up to the present day. In
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Observing Memories
ISSUE 3