Unveiling of the Monument to Jupiter – “Zagreb Before It Even Existed – Before 1094”

🪐 Unveiling of the Monument to Jupiter

📅 February 11, 2026
📍 Banjavčićeva Street 1a, Zagreb
🕐 1:00 PM

⚡ Ceremonial Unveiling of the Monument to Jupiter

We invite you to the ceremonial unveiling of the monument to Jupiter, which will take place on Wednesday, February 11, 2026, at 1:00 PM in Banjavčićeva Street, as part of the 35th anniversary of the long-running museum initiative:

“Zagreb Before It Even Existed – Before 1094”

Participants: Nenad Jandrić; Zoran Gregl; Ozren Domiter; Željko Kovačić

🏛️ About the Project

“Zagreb Before It Even Existed – Before 1094” is a conceptual inversion of the museum idea. It is a transformation in which museum objects, in the form of their replicas, leave the static museum environment and enrich urban space with a touch of museality, while simultaneously giving the original artifacts renewed vitality.

Over 35 years of continuous work, 15 locations in Zagreb have been marked with museum objects of geological, paleontological, and archaeological significance.

This diverse monumental series, initiated in 1990, includes a young whale, a figure named Marko, a bearded Roman, Emperor Hadrian, a small lamb, and a large woolly mammoth. It has recently been joined by the supreme Roman god — Jupiter.

⚡ The Monument to Jupiter

The monument commemorates Jupiter, the thunderer and protector, the ultimate ruler of the sky — powerful, just, and commanding.

The bronze statuette of Jupiter likely adorned a Roman chariot that once traveled through the ancient predecessor of Banjavčićeva Street during the 3rd century and was placed in the burial of a local dignitary.

Interestingly, the find never entered the holdings of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb but remained part of an unknown private collection. The reconstruction of the object was based on a preserved sketch.

Even more intriguingly, since its installation in 1993, the replica of the object at this location disappeared three times by 1998 — whether stolen, removed, or as if the Roman god himself chose to vanish.

🔮 What to Expect

On February 11, 2026, at 1:00 PM, beneath a purple cloth, a bronze figure of Jupiter will be revealed — or perhaps it will not. Perhaps it will disappear again. Perhaps this time it will remain.

At his will. ⚡