Krapina Neanderthal Museum

The new Krapina Neanderthal Museum is located near the world famous site of the Krapina Neanderthals „Hušnjakovo“, a fact which makes it a unique visiting complex.

The Museum's architecture evokes the habitat of the prehistoric man: the semi-cave, the volume, proportions and the front of which are a result of the analysis done on the appearance of the ancient Krapina semi-cave.

The Discovery Site

Krapina Discovery Site

Scientifically known as Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the Krapina prehistoric man was discovered all the way back in 1899, when geological and paleontological research started on Hušnjakovo hill in Krapina.

Excavations, supervised by professor Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger, a well-known Croatian geologist, palaeontologist and paleoanthropologist, lasted six years (1899 – 1905). His works significantly contributed to European and global science of the fossil man.

Some nine hundred human fossil bones were found in the cave's sandstone deposits, which were 8 meters high. This is the largest and most abundant collection of Neanderthal people collected at a single locality. The bones belong to the fossil remains of several dozen individuals, both male and female, from 2 to 40 years of age.