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Museum of lost love in Croatia

In India there is the Taj Mahal, emperor Shah Jahan’s timeless monument of love for his wife Mumtaz Mahal and in Croatia there is the Museum of Broken Relationships (MOBR), a monument to the vagaries of life that leaves broken hearts in its wake.

If the Taj Mahal continues to fascinate people the world over, especially those in love and pledging eternal love, the MOBR in Croatia can well be the place where the jilted and the dumped can get their back up on the people who broke their hearts.

At the Zagreb’s museum don’t expect to see declarations of love in fine marble. Instead, look for the everyday evidence of the stuff that lost love leaves behind. Such as a sharp axe that one jilted man used to systematically wreck his ex-girlfriend’s furniture after she dumped his for another man, while he was away. Or a pair of mannequin hands that is a stark reminder that hell hath no fury like a woman scored — this woman used her lovely hands to wreak havoc, spraying polyurethane foam all over her lover’s apartment.

When the candy floss pink clouds of love evaporate and the flowers, diamonds and vows of eternal love disappear, scorned lovers often take recourse to small acts of meanness that makes them feel better.

Therapy perhaps? One woman popped a bottle to celebrate her escape from almost marrying an unfaithful man. The cork from the bottle now sits proudly on a pedestal at the museum with other memorabilia such as wedding gowns, love notes, a pair of handcuffs, an under pant, a cuddly teddy bear and a smashed rear view mirror.

Interestingly, the museum itself has been put together by a couple whose love did not survive but they decided to use the memorabilia from their relationship to build a monument for other loving relationships that went sour.

When in Zagreb, this might be a good place to drop in for the sake of love. Or the love that you lost.