by Cristiana Missori

(ANSA) - ROME - The city of Zagreb has created a museum dedicated to broken hearts, and it has become a favorite destination for many. ''It is one of the most-visited museums in the Croatian capital'', said the director of Croatia's National Tourism Board in Italy, Dario Matojevic. On exhibit in the Museum of Broken Hearts are hundreds of objects, fetishes and mementos that once belonged to now-separated couples. Each one is accompanied by a written testimonial from the donor, complete with dates, places where the relationship took shape or fell apart, and annotations. A lock of hair, a wedding dress, a love letter that was never sent, ripped into a thousand pieces and then glued back together: each one tells a story about how people love one another, or decide to end their relationships.
There is a cell phone, with an explanatory note from its anonymous Croatian donor: ''A love that lasted 300 days. He gave me his cell phone, asking me never to call him again''. There are also a pair of men's underwear with a note saying: ''It was too small, but I didn't care'', an axe used to demolish the furniture upon separation, and a wooden leg that once belonged to a Balkan war veteran, donated in the name of his erstwhile love affair with the nurse who healed him. The museum is the brainchild of a former couple, artist Drazen Grubisic and producer Olinka Vistica: theirs was the very first object that the museum exhibited in 2006, in memory of a relationship that lasted four years. The reliquary of sentimental adventures has been growing since then with the addition of objects from around the world, since everyone and anyone is welcome to gift the museum with their own totem to a love gone by. The show has toured dozens of cities including Belgrade, Berlin, Fiume, London, Manila, San Francisco, Pola, Singapore, and Skopje before returning to its permanent home in 2010. The Museum of Broken Hearts is located in a late 18th-century palace in the old quarter of Zagreb just steps away from city hall, where many couples take their vows.