The official outdoor tour! Why not take a walk with us around the St. Stephen's Cathedral and discover the most important landmark and symbol of Vienna! This tour was created in cooperation with St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

St. Stephen’s Outdoor Experience

Vienna is full of history! Discover it by walking through the small alleys around the Rotenturmstraße. Every corner and cobblestone will tell you about the genesis of the city. If you are tired, we recommend visiting one of the famous Viennese coffeehouses. 

Explore the Heart of Old Vienna

Vienna is new to you, and you are looking to get a nicely well-rounded overview of the old city center? This tour covers historical highlights, reveals fascinating stories, and takes you down a few cobblestone streets that most visitors never see.

Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Vienna

Discover plants from all around the globe: This audio tour of the Palm House Schönbrunn will enable you to discover more than 4,000 plants from every continent.Note: The Palm House Schönbrunn is not to be confused with the Café Palmenhaus. The café is located in the Burggarten.

The Emperor's Greenhouse: Palm House

Attention! This tour includes saucy details and is not appropriate for all under 18 years.From prostitutes, johns, and mistresses to animal skin condoms, syphilis, and wax noses, to Maria Theresia, Metternich, Napoleon, and many more: the dirty secrets and shady sides of Viennese erotic activities over the years come out of the shadows in this tour. This tour was created in cooperation with wienfuehrung.

Love for Sale in Old Vienna

Naschmarkt not only offers culinary highlights but also architectural ones: the Art Deco and Viennese Modern Age buildings by Otto Wagner. This tour starts at the subway station Kettenbrückengasse and passes through Naschmarkt to Karlsplatz where two pavillons by Otto Wagner can be visited. If there's enough time afterwards, you could take the U4 in either the direction of Heiligenstadt or Hütteldorf and get out at one of the beautiful old Stadtbahn (city railway) station buildings that are still in use today.

Otto Wagner and Naschmarkt

Rent a bike, Segway, or scooter and explore the best Vienna has to offer on wheels. With your wheels, you can cover a lot of ground, meaning you’ll finish this tour with a well-rounded overview of the makeup of this old dame of a city and the stories it has to tell. Attention: Leave your phone in your pocket while driving and don't forget to keep your distance. Stay safe!

Vienna On Wheels: From Schönbrunn Palace to Stubentor

Get yourself a ride and head out on this exciting tour on which you’ll catch many sides of Vienna that most visitors never see. You’ll get started at the magnificent Hundertwasserhaus and end it all in the wine hills with a glass of delicious wine or grape juice in hand and a spectacular view over Vienna. Attention: Leave your phone in your pocket while driving and don't forget to keep your distance. Stay safe!

Vienna On Wheels: From Hundertwasserhaus up to the Wine Hills

Waltz through the city and discover the places that inspired great musicians that have walked Vienna’s streets. Meet Beethoven, Mozart, and the Strausses and find out more about the role Vienna has played in the history of music.

A Music Lover’s Guide to Vienna

The Vučedol Culture Museum gathers everything about the diverse and ancient Vučedol culture that existed here thousands of years ago. This guide will lead you through the 19 rooms and take you on a journey through the past.

Vučedol Culture Museum  | Culture is now even more accessible

Vučedol Culture Museum - Entrance ticket

Hrvatski

English

We hope You enjoyed discovering unique vučedol culture. Greetings from team Vučedol. Thank You for Your visit - hope to see you soon.

Thank You!

Hong Kong Island at Its Best – 10 Top Things to Do

The Blue Mosque and Its Surroundings

Mystical Zagreb. The Bewitched Story

Explore the Real Zagreb

Borobudur Temple Tour

Borobudur Walk

Glimpse into Zagreb

Walking Tour Zagreb

Taksim Square and Istiklal Street

Laughing is Contagious

Vienna United

Welcome to Vučedol

Welcome to the Vučedol Culture Museum, unique museum in the world dedicated to one prehistoric culture.
Through 19 rooms of the museum, learn about the civilisation of the third millenium BC conteporary with the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Discover your Indoeuropean roots through the adventure of the museum exibition.
Enjoy your tour!

Geological position

Interesting fact

Geological Position&nbsp;The area on the right bank of the Danube river in the Eastern Slavonia and the Western Syrmia is covered by loess terraces in the width of 10-15 km. It ensured the habitat for the first Neolithic farmers of Europe (Starčevo Culture - 6,200 BC.) and permanent communication and migration of the Indo-Europeans from the northern Black Sea steppes to the Central and Western Europe, as well as to Iran and India in the East. Accelerated migration of the Indo-European people is still a fascinating and intriguing historical subject even today, forcing linguists and archaeologists to join forces while seeking for the hidden answer. The people of Vučedol represent the close link between the Indo-Europeans (Baden Culture - 3,500 BC.) and the existing old inhabitants of Sopot and Vinca culture.&nbsp;Interesting Fact&nbsp;Loess is a sedimentary rock made of silt and very fine sand carried by the wind through great distances during the Pleistocene ice ages until approximately 12 thousand years ago. Remarkably porous, it covers about 4% of the Earth’s land surface and 7% of Europe, and can reach 40 meters in thickness. Loess is a basis for unusually fertile soil, but since it holds water poorly, it hosts mainly annual plants. These steppe lowlands form broad pastures, and when cultivated, they offer ideal conditions for growing grain.

Room 1 – Geological Position

Name of the culture

Interesting facts

The research of the Vučedol culture and eponymous site Vučedol was conducted by numerous scientists and archaeologists whose work contributed in spreading the knowledge about the Vučedol culture and promotion of its name. Particularly important are the local scientists Josip Brunšmid, Viktor Hoffiller and Stojan Dimitrijević. In the last 30 years Aleksandar Durman, PhD, has been deeply involved with the issue of the Vučedol culture. Systematic archaeological research of Vučedol has been conducted by the Vučedol Culture Museum in collaboration with the Department of Archaeology (Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb) and the Vukovar Municipal Museum.

Room 2 – Names of the Culture

The Earliest Indo-Europeans

The Baden Culture settled in this area just after the first half of the 4th millennium BC. At the site Vučedol it is noticeable that the first pure layer of the Baden Culture is mixing with the Kostolac Culture. There was a short period of co-existence, and then follows a pure Kostolac layer at the very end of the 4th millennium BC. As the 3rd millennium BC begins, a new culture arises, without any traces of co-existence with the Kostolac Culture. This new culture bears the eponymous name - Vučedol. Many of the ceramic findings at the Vučedol site are considered to be the oldest, leading us to the question- how did this new culture manage to expel an ascending culture from the settlements and the region? The earliest Vučedol Culture findings are mostly from the nearby Eastern Slavonia and Western Syrmia, where the culture shaped itself slowly transfering recognizable features to Vučedol. In the Vučedol culture, the Indo-European tradition is visibly dominant.

Room 3 – The Earliest Indo-Europeans

Herding

Herding was Vučedol's primary economy branch. Bones of domestic animals, especially cattle bones, are the most dominant in Vučedol area. There is a small percentage of horse bones, that came with the Indo-European migrations to the Danube, and those bones are a proof that Vučedolians were riders. The meat diet included a number of wild animals, especially during the period when the culture was closer to wetland and forests, providing a clear indication that the meat diet varied according to the area in which the culture is located. Large amounts of animals and meat, as well as dairy products, present a wide range of possibilities for making use of skin, bones and wool. As a herding people, Vučedolians used salt to produce acorns, but would also produce more durable products from milk. The Vučedol culture in search of salt opened their way to the Adriatic – the sites around Trieste, in the central (the islands of Brač, Hvar, Korčula) and southern part (Kotor Bay and north of Albania).

Room 4 – Herding

Agriculture

Apart from cattle breeding, Večedolians also practiced agriculture. The most commonly cultivated were einkorn wheat, emmer wheat&nbsp; and barley. The land was cultivated with picks made from deer or cattle antlers, and cereals were shredded on the stone grind. Grindstones were known from the ancient Egyptian's drawings and models. In houses with several rooms one was often used as the storage room; it was recognizable by shallow pits hollowed in the floor where large vessels for storing perishable supplies of wheat and flour were placed. On the floor, near the fireplace, there were often circular clay plates for baking and cooking (which slowly transformed to ceramics due to the heat source). They were set bottom upwards on to the heat source. After they were hot enough, plates were put on top of them or food was directly placed and prepared on the hot surface.

Room 5 – Agriculture

Hunting and fishing

Game animals were often a part of a regular menu for Vučedolians. They were hunting at the edges of forests and swamps, where they could approach animals easily and take them down with a bow and arrow or a spear. Deer and wild boar were one of the most common prays. Waste pits from that time contain bones from different birds, mostly swamp dwellers: geese, bean geese, wild ducks, pochard (diving) ducks, cranes and pelicans. One pit even contains bones of five adult beavers. Fishing was of great importance and it played an important role in the diet. Hunting mostly took place in Danubes backwaters, where the fish reserves and spawns were. Rich catch was provided by intertwining of twigs and nets of traps. Harpoons were the main tool. Shells were used as a fish bait. Most often they hunted carp, catfish and pike, but Vučedolians also ate trout. Waste pits contain higher concentrations of fish scales, probably prepared for drying, and it took around 2-3 kg of salt for the fish to dry.

Room 6 – Hunting and Fishing

Settlements

There are traces of life in the Vučedol Culture layer on elevated locations in valleys, in mountainous regions and in swamp areas and caves. Vučedolians chose loess surfaces as their site for settlements, often at the edges of steep ridges along the river. They also modified the other slopes near the settlement, making them steeper and less accessible. Houses in their settlements in the original Slavonia and Srijem home region were compactly spaced, sometimes less than a meter apart or even touching each other. The houses were originally placed in parallel circular rows and later changed by frequent rebuilding. A fire starting in one house could easily spread to the others, requiring improvised repairs. Houses were rebuilt in the same place, but rotated slightly from the previous house so that stakes supporting the construction of the house could be stuck into a new hole. Evidences show that there are up to six levels of rebuilt house floors in Vučedol.

Room 7 – Settlements

Vučedolian house

Vučedolians lived in a type of a house with no earlier model, constructed like a large basket. For the whole construction, apart from the roof, they used branches which were driven into the ground in rows every 25 to 30 cm. Wicker sticks were woven into them horizontally. To keep the weaving continuous, there could not be any corners. This skeleton was coated on both sides with liquid loess or clay. The roof was covered with a layer of cod. The floor was of solidly compacted loess or loam, scraped into a shiny surface, almost like ceramics. Houses have one, two or three rooms. To keep the cold air out, entrances face the south or the west. One-room and particularly two-room houses generally had the door on the narrow side of the house. The entrance to a three-room house was in the middle room, facing the south; passages led to the side rooms. This type was the most frequent, and in the most traditional Pannonian-areas similar houses exist even today, witness of Indo-European tradition.

Room 8 – House

Clothing and weaving

Preserved ceramic idols (figurines) allow precise reconstruction of Vučedolian clothing. Clothing was made of leather, fur, wool and linen, and coloring was done by using available colors from the plants. Fabrics were woven on vertical looms, as shown by findings of clay loom-weights. Each thread at the bottom of the apartment was tied to a ceramic pan, which holds the thread tense. All the weights on a single loom had to be the same weight, and that was easily achieved if they were made according to the same clay form. Ceramic flat weights served as flywheels for the spindle on which the winder thread of wool or linen was spun. Ceramic spools on which the winder thread was spun were also found.

Room 9 –  Clothing and Weaving

Crafts

A wide range of tools is an obvious indicator of the needs of the Vučedol culture for improving herding, agriculture, hunting and fishing, weaving, making shoes and clothing, leather and pottery. Apart from grind and upper stone findings, there was a large number of stone grindstones findings, stone axes, chisels and mallets. A number of microliths also confirmed the intensive craftsmanship. Bone tools were mostly used - horn hoes with a small hole for the handle, needles, awls, spatulas, multifunctional bone tools, arrows, harpoons and hooks. Traces of sawing are noticeable on animal horns, which is actually the oldest trace of sawing at all. Vučedolian clothes were reconstructed according to ceramic idols found on the site which portray only the female character. Shoes can also be reconstructed according to the same model. All findings show that footwear was always made for the left and right foot. They used leather and fur for shoe production.

Room 10 – Crafts

Mettalurgy

An isolated plateau Gradac was a metallurgical center and center of a cult life of the settlement.The Vučedol Culture used a complex copper ore with high amounts of arsenic and antimony. This natural blend of copper and arsenic gave the so-called “arsenical bronze”, an alloy considerably harder than copper, so from that time the metal had a useful value and was used not only as a decoration. Since arsenic is a toxic gas, metallurgy had to be away from the colonial part of the settlement and for this reason this isolated plateau was the ideal location to accommodate "Megaron Copper Smelters", the largest excavated area at Vučedol site. The Vučedol Culture introduced two-piece and multi-piece clay molds which allowed the oldest serial production of metals. The Vučedol culture has discovered three types of metallurgical furnaces: smelter ore, furnace for casting metal and the furnace without the dome. The production of the world's oldest bronze started in the furnace without the dome.

Room 11 – Mettalurgy

Ceramics

In archaeological excavations one of the most common findings is ceramics. Prehistoric communities are recognizable by the specific shape and decoration of their ceramics, and archeologists often classify them into cultures on this basis. Ceramics form what we call civilization. The Vučedol Culture ceramics are one of the most attractive ceramics in European prehistory. They offer a spectrum of types, with over 20 sorts of pots, some of them unique in form. Many of them are ‘fine’ ceramics; signs are carved in various ways on a heavy black background, filled in with white incrustations and regularly placed red lines. Such decorations on ceramics, with their precise placement, forms and rhythms, are a sort of pictorial writing. The Vučedol Culture mass-produced bowls for individual use, unlike earlier and later cultures in which people ate collectively from large shared vessels.

Room 12 – Ceramics

Horizon

Although the position of the Sun was a basic tool for Vučedolians to count days and years in their immense lowland plain along the Danube river, they could not track its position since they saw a 360 degrees of their horizon only as a featureless straight line. The most typical Vučedolian one-handled vessel was of biconical form, with a lower part rapidly narrowing towards the bottom. At the widest diameter, the oldest terrines had only a carved line marking the horizon. Soon contours of relief were drawn on the upper cone - at first low and then, as the culture was spreading to the south and west, growing larger and larger with a series of decorations carved into it. The upper part above this belt could have decorations showing constellations in the night sky and the planets Venus and Mars. For all ancient people the most important moment of the day was dawn as well as dusk when the Sun returns to it. Hence the Sun was always shown with its middle at the bend of the vessel.

Room 13 – Horizon

Calendar

In 1978 in Vinkovci a damaged ceramic vessel decorated with incrustation and divided into four horizontal bands was found. Each band is divided into fields and the total decoration makes chessboard. This vessel is the oldest Indo-European calendar. Four belts marked four seasons. Inside the rectangular fields are arranged symbols related to Vučedol constellations. This feature confirms a high intellectual level of Vučedolians. With a view of the Sun only in the upper belt, the remaining symbols represent constellations at the time of twilight as the first features of the evening sky. These are the Orion constellation, the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Gemini, Pegasus and Taurus. The Orion constellation is Vučedolians' strongest landmark control in the sky, and the disappearance of the belt marks the end of winter and beginning of the spring and also the first day of the Vučedol new year (vernal equinox - March 21). When it appears after several months in dusk, winter begins.

Room 14 – Calendar

The Graves

Necropolis site was never discovered in the Vučedol culture. However, certain burial sites with specific burial ways were discovered, and there is a visible difference in burial customs when compared to other prehistorical cultures. These graves are evidence of rituals that were practiced inside the Vučedol Culture, showing also some characteristics of human sacrifice. Three graves, specific by their position and relations of the deceased, as well as their connection with some Vučedolian constellations, are here featured. Particularly noteworthy is the tomb 3/1985 in which eight deceased were buried, six Pleiades followers and Venus and Mars. All the deceased were predestined for a sacrifice as shown by hollows in the skull created by drippings of molten metal. Symbolic decoration of terrine found within the grave explains why these deceased were sacrificed.

Room 15 – The Graves

The Vučedolian

Skulls of the deceased from the grave 3/985 are exhibited in this room. Two central skulls are Mars and Venus. They have two cavities created from drippings of molten metal, while the other six female deceased represent the followers of the Pleiades; only one cavity is visible on their skulls. The surface of the cavities, which were created for ritual purposes, was painted with the most beautiful color dust of the prehistorical era - cinnabar, mercury sulphide. The youngest woman in the grave is a 9 year old girl, and the oldest is around 50 years. Vučedolians were short in height or of medium height, not more than 158 cm for women and 164 cm for men.

Room 16 – The Vučedolian

Religion

There are two most important gods for livestock nations, Thunder God and Sun God. Thunder God is an eternal danger to cattlemen, while the Sun God brings warmth and movement. The symbols of the Sun are circle, cross and swastika. These symbols were a common decoration on ceramics of that time and they reached their climax in the Vučedol Culture, indicating Indo-European cultural circle. When the decorated vessel cracked or broke, Vučedolians kept only the parts representing the Sun as amulets. A lightning strike in the valley where the flock gathered meant a tragic loss, almost the end of existence of the entire community. Thunder God is therefore the supreme deity of all livestock, including Indo-European people. He is portrayed as a man with lightning in his hand standing on a bull. Saddle altars, which were the symbol of bull horns, were a part of that cult in the Vučedol Culture.

Room 17 – Religion

Vucedol culture and the world

The Vučedol culture has its origins in the area between the Danube, Sava and Drava river. It slowly spread to the area of 13 countries of today's modern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania and Greece ), thus defining the foundation of the modern world. The Vučedol culture is the most impressive European response to the largest historical civilizational jump starting 3000 BC with the first letters or the creation of the first countries. The Vučedol culture existed in the same time period as Sumerians in Mesopotamia, the old empire in Egypt ( "The Age of the Pyramids") and early Troy (I and II), thus ensuring itself a title "European Troy".

Room 18 – Vucedol Culture and the World

Museum formation

The construction of the museum building and workshops of traditional crafts at Vučedol, reconstruction of Megaron Copper Smelters and renovation of Villa Streim as a cultural monument – are all parts of the project Vukovar-Vučedol–Ilok, completed in 2011. Museum with its permanent exhibition was open to the public on June 30th, 2015. The museum building was designed by Radionica Arhitekture under the guidance of architect Goran Rako. Exhibition design of the Museum is creative idea of Vanja Ilić. The authors of the idea of the museum are Ruzica Maric and Aleksandar Durman. The authors of the permanent museum exhibition are professor Aleksandar Durman and Mirela Hutinec. The Vučedol Culture Museum is the first step towards the final project of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds - the Vučedol archeological park.

Room 19 – Museum Formation

Vučedol Culture Museum

Welcome to the Vučedol Culture Museum, unique museum in the world dedicated to one prehistoric culture.
Through 19 rooms of the museum, learn about the civilisation of the third millenium BC conteporary with the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Discover Your Indoeuropean roots through the adventure of the museum exibition.
Enjoy Your tour!

What's included

Preview

1. Welcome to Vučedol

2. Room 1 – Geological ...

3. Room 2 – Names of th...

4. Room 3 – The Earlies...

5. Room 4 – Herding

6. Room 5 – Agriculture

7. Room 6 – Hunting and...

8. Room 7 – Settlements

9. Room 8 – House

10. Room 9 – Clothing ...

11. Room 10 – Crafts

12. Room 11 – Mettalurg...

13. Room 12 – Ceramics

14. Room 13 – Horizon

15. Room 14 – Calendar

16. Room 15 – The Grave...

17. Room 16 – The Vučed...

18. Room 17 – Religion

19. Room 18 – Vucedol C...

20. Room 19 – Museum Fo...