Betina on Murter has one wonderful thing worth seeing, and that is the museum of wooden shipbuilding. It is definitely the most beautiful museum I have seen in Croatia. The museum is in the center of Betina in a beautiful historic building and there are many interesting things to see.
Our children (6 years and 3.5 years old) also had a great time in the museum. For young visitors, there is a 3D game in the museum where children assemble the Betina gajeta – the most famous Betina boat – from individual components.
The museum mainly showcases the tradition of wooden shipbuilding, which families in Betina have been dedicated to for centuries. Each family has its secret, its know-how, which was guarded and passed down within the family from the master (usually the father) only to the most capable successor among the offspring. Other family members did not know this secret. Those who have more time can read the stories of individual Betina families involved in shipbuilding in the museum.
The pinnacle of wooden shipbuilding art is the Betina gajeta – a wooden boat 5 – 8 m long and 2 – 2.6 m wide. In 2015, the “Skill of building the Betina gajeta” was declared an intangible cultural heritage of the Republic of Croatia.
In addition to the gajeta, models of other boats such as the leut or kaić are on display. These boat models also captivated our children.
The museum also features an ethnographic collection, including folk costumes and other traditional clothing for various occasions.
Furthermore, various tools used in shipbuilding are also on display.
What personally interested me a lot were the various tools used for fishing. We had already held some of them and tried to use them when we went out to sea with the locals. But some I saw for the first time.
To sum it up, this museum is definitely not boring and I think it will excite both adults and children. It is definitely worth seeing 🙂
