Broken relationships… now there’s something we can all relate to. While the first thing that springs to mind is entanglements of the heart, the Museum of Broken Relationships looks at all manner of love lost.
On display, you’ll find incredibly unexpected items. From the former rings of lovers to the prosthetic leg of a man who survived the Yogslav Wars, this museum displays anonymous items from people all over the world who have managed to survive a broken heart.
Treasure Your Heartbreak
Right on their homepage, it reads, “It is a museum about you, about us, about the ways we love and lose.” The curators offer to “treasure your heartbreak stories” as they display your mementos. In a way, they take on the burden of your pain and, in all likelihood, relieve some of the senders’ sorrow.
Of course, that’s all rumor and innuendo because the curators claim there’s no cure for heartache here, just an avenue to overcome what the museum points out as an “emotional collapse” through creativity.
A Rabbit Encapsulated Their Love
The museum’s inception, like everything else here, has an interesting history. It was established in 2006 by two former lovers, Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić. As they were divvying up their belongings, they got to one item that neither of them could bear to part with.
They had a toy bunny that they would wind up when one or the other came home at night. Sometimes, when they were traveling for work, they’d pack the little bunny up and take quirky pictures around the world at tourist destinations. In a way, one silly wind-up rabbit encapsulated their entire relationship. And the rest is history.
Healing After Heartache
Located in a former palace in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, this is a place for people to take a step towards healing after heartache. And it’s not just former lovers. People have sent in ashes from their deceased spouses and bras after their battle with cancer has come to an end.
The simplicity of the exhibits stands in stark contrast to the complexity of the human heart. Each item is displayed against a stark white wall with a short, anonymous description.
An Ax As a Therapeutic Tool
In one display, there’s an ax that might immediately make your mind go to a worst-case scenario. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite that ghoulish. A man and a woman were once in love. The woman cold-heartedly left him – and some of her furniture – behind. For every day she was gone, he chopped up one piece of her former furniture to relieve the strain on his heart and illustrate its condition. When she came back for her belongings, she found them neatly stacked into small heaps of wood by the door. The anonymous donor wrote, “She took that trash and left for good.”
Bringing Heartache and Healing All Over the World
While the curators have received over 4,000 items throughout the passage of time, they only display about 70 items in each exhibition. Sometimes, they hit the road and feature traveling exhibitions, as well.
In the past, they’ve brought heartache and healing to places like Podgorica, Montenegro, and Indianapolis, Indiana. They even invite people to host their own exhibitions, with a few basic requirements.
Friendship, Loyalty, and Love
Right now, there are two Claddagh rings on display. The Claddagh ring is an Irish design that symbolizes friendship, loyalty, and love. Two hands clasp a heart for love, topped by a crown.
The anonymous donor said she lost the first ring down a drain, and he replaced it. Astonishingly, she broke the second one by trying to bend it back into shape – and he replaced that one, too. When he replaced it for a third time, she took extra special care of it – thinking, wow, he must really love and care for her. Then, he left.
Two Nations Collide
From wind-up rabbits to axes to Claddagh rings, you just never know what you’ll stumble across in the museum. Truthfully, many of the displays are sad, but they tell the story of our human existence. They’re a bunch of short stories told through inanimate objects. As you walk past two silver rings, you’re likely to come across something as absurd as a rubber figurine of a pig.
It was donated by someone in Jerusalem who fell in love with a student exchange program. Once the couple got to know one another, they would cook dinner together every night, and boy, did he love adding bacon to his meals.
However, in her culture, she didn’t eat pork. Although it was a silly little item, it was standing there on their table every night, foreshadowing what was about to come. When she sent in her figurine, she recounted the story of their love.
It was a simple kind of thing – stolen kisses in the moonlight, shared meals together in the evening. But, as a college kid, she decided to obey her parents and refused to marry someone who was not of their faith. Twenty-seven years later, she still regrets that choice and wishes she’d followed her heart.
When you think about it, packaging up these priceless moments must, somehow, be part of the healing process. It’s hard to move on if we never let go. For 27 years, that rubber pig stood somewhere in her home – and now it’s gone.
How to Relieve Your Pain
Whether you’re healing from a broken heart, yourself, or want to go there with your lover to resolve never succumb to these kinds of fates, a trip to this museum is worth every last Euro. That said, consider yourself warned: empaths will leave here having walked through a huge range of emotions that they might want to blow off when they exit the palace.
There’s a bar just down the street, K’ Štrossu, to take the edge off. Or, you might go for a walk through the nearby Park Grič to savor the sights of nature and remember that all things can spring back to life.
Still, if you love a good short story, told through the tiniest items, this is a lovely and enchanting place to unite with fellow souls. It’s a reminder that we’re all in this together; we all experience love, loss, pain – and hope.
Where are you headed next? Perhaps you’ll wander west to Rome when you’re done or sail south to Albania. Wherever the road takes you, we have a destination guide on tap to help you craft the perfect itinerary. Mind your heart, friends!