Franciscan Monastery, Makarska

Franciscan Monastery, Makarska tickets: which one to buy

The Franciscan monastery stands on the edge of the old centre of Makarska, a few minutes from the harbour promenade, and its main draw is not the church but the shell museum inside it. The museum charges a small admission and is one of the few indoor attractions on the Makarska Riviera, which makes it a useful plan for a grey or very hot day. The church can usually be entered freely outside service times.

Most visitors come to Makarska for the beaches and the boat trips to Brac and Hvar, and a visit here fits easily into an evening stroll along the waterfront. There are few organised tours that include the monastery; the town is small and it is simplest to walk there. If you are interested in the Biokovo mountain behind the town, the museum's natural history displays make a good introduction before a trip up the mountain road. Labels in the museum are in Croatian with English translations on most cases.

Visiting Franciscan Monastery, Makarska: what to see

The Franciscans have been in Makarska since the sixteenth century, and their monastery and church, rebuilt several times, stand a short walk from the sea with a quiet cloister at the centre. The church is a simple building with a modern interior and an altar mosaic. The reason most people come is the Malacological Museum, founded in 1963 by the friar and naturalist Jure Radic, which holds one of the largest collections of shells in the world: thousands of species of snails, bivalves and other molluscs from the Adriatic and from oceans across the globe, displayed in cases in rooms off the cloister, from tiny iridescent shells to giant clams and conches.

The collection grew through the friar's own work and gifts from sailors and missionaries. Fossils, corals and other marine specimens complete the displays, and the whole thing has the slightly old-fashioned charm of a cabinet of curiosities. The cloister garden is planted with Mediterranean shrubs and is open to visitors of the museum.

Franciscan Monastery, Makarska opening hours and the best time to go

The museum keeps longer hours in summer, often into the evening, and shorter ones out of season, when it may close on some days; check before walking over in winter. July and August bring large numbers of visitors to Makarska and the beaches are crowded, which makes the cool rooms of the museum welcome in the middle of the day. June and September are the most pleasant months on this coast.

The town's summer festival brings concerts and events to the waterfront. The road up Biokovo to the skywalk and the summit is best tackled early in the morning before the heat haze. Ferries to Brac leave from the harbour below the monastery. Allow about forty minutes for the museum and the church together. The promenade outside the monastery is lined with cafes and fills with families on summer evenings.