Strossmayer Gallery

A huge sculpture of Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer dominates the park in front of the academy he founded as the Yugoslav Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1860 in the middle section of Zrinevac. The school occupies the building's ground floor and the gallery is spread out over the rest. Strossmayer began collecting art when he became bishop of Dakovo and made a mission of accumulating art. He secured funds to build the beige 19th-century building off Strossmayer Trg, where the gallery opened in 1884 to house his (mostly) religious art. Today it is also home to the fabled Baska Tablet, which is the oldest known example of Glagolitic script in existence and perhaps Croatia's most important artifact. The tablet is displayed under glass in the ground-floor lobby without any conspicuous sign or fanfare. Entry to the gallery is on the third floor of the building, though no signs direct you there. Fewer than 300 items from the Strossmayer's 4,000-item inventory are displayed at any given time. They include 14th- to 19th-century works from Italian and other European masters.