The Museum of the Sinj Alka is one of the most modern museums in the Republic of Croatia. Its permanent exhibition reaches the highest museum standards, both in presentation and technology. Numerous interactive features engage all of the visitor's senses. It is a contemporary, well-organized heritage institution that presents alkar uniforms, equipment, and weapons alongside multimedia installations, films, and the like. The story told by the Museum of the Sinj Alka through its archival holdings is an irreplaceable part of the history of Sinj and the Cetina region, deeply rooted in the collective Croatian memory.
Three centuries of tradition condensed into a single space. From the first Alka competitions to the most recent champion — a story Sinj has never stopped telling.
1935BeginningsThe origins of the Museum of the Sinj Alka reach back roughly a hundred years, to when the first ideas emerged for a dedicated space that would serve the needs of the Alka and the Chivalric Alka Society, which did not yet own any property at the time. In the period after the Second World War, the alkar uniforms, weapons, and equipment were housed as a special collection in the Museum of the Cetina Region, before being displayed, until the 1990s, as a makeshift collection in the premises of the Chivalric Alka Society, in the former house of Kruno Tripalo, a duke from the early 20th century. That house was subsequently, through purchase from the heirs in the 1990s, largely brought into the ownership of the Chivalric Alka Society. Already in the 1980s, the Chivalric Alka Society had acquired ownership of part of the Kvartir, a protected block of barracks from the 18th and 19th centuries.
- 19871987
An important step toward the realization of the Alka museum was the Spatial Program and the comprehensive Concept for the permanent exhibition of the Alka Museum in Sinj, jointly developed by museologist Ivo Maroević and architect Duško Dropulić in 1987, already with the Kvartir premises in mind. The Manor and the Museum were finally shaped according to the architectural design produced by the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture of the University of Split, with chief designer Ante Kuzmanić — selected through an architectural competition held by the Chivalric Alka Society in 2001. The concept for the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Sinj Alka and the design of the Alkar Manor premises for museum purposes was prepared by Joško Belamarić and Ante Milošević, while the design project itself was carried out by Nikolina Jelavić-Mitrović.
- 2004"Below the Church"
In 2004, the Government of the Republic of Croatia issued a decision granting the entire Kvartir complex to the Chivalric Alka Society for the purpose of building the Alkar Manor and the Museum of the Sinj Alka, and from that point on, the older idea of an Alkar headquarters — far more suitable than the previous one in the former Tripalo house "below the church" — began to be realized, namely on Alojzije Stepinac Promenade.
- Opening of the Museum2015
The Museum was ceremonially opened on 8 August 2015, on the very eve of the celebration of the three-hundredth anniversary of the Sinj Alka. Thus, on the dawn of three centuries of celebrating its existence, the Chivalric Alka Society and the museum collection of old alkar uniforms and equipment found a fitting home under an appropriate roof, in a evocatively arranged setting.
- 2018Interpretation of Heritage
With the shaping of the Alkar Manor in the old Kvartir, the conditions were finally met for the chivalric game of the Sinj Alka to gain its own representative museum framework, one that would remain open throughout the entire year to the public, visitors, excursions, and, above all, to the people of Sinj themselves. Thus, amid the celebration of the third century of its existence, the Chivalric Alka Society and the museum collection of old alkar uniforms and equipment found a home under a fitting roof and in an evocatively designed setting. For its exceptional contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage, the Museum of the Sinj Alka and the Alkar Manor were awarded, in 2018, the prestigious European Europa Nostra award.
EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2018 in the category Education, Training and Awareness-Raising
The Museum was nominated for Best European Museum of the Year 2017 (EMYA 2017).
It is the recipient of the gold plaque of the international cultural-tourism award "Plautilla" in 2017.
In 2016, it received the Storytelling award (ŽIVA Award 2016) from the Forum of Slavic Cultures.
It reached the finals for the Cultural Attraction of the Year 2016 award, presented by the Croatian Tourist Board.
Nikad dosad nije bilo moguće sve o Sinjskoj alci doživjeti u jednom prostoru. Muzej Sinjske alke nudi upravo to — od alkarske povorke u prirodnoj veličini do interaktivnih sadržaja i autentičnih izložaka koji približavaju bogatu povijest i tradiciju Alke.
