Through love for the sea and a passion for collecting, Ines and Nesko Miljan Popović have created a unique place in Cavtat where visitors, in a half hour guided tour, can walk through millions of years of evolution. More than 2,500 specimens of shells from all the seas and oceans of the world testify to the resilience of these beautiful, fragile, simple creatures that have survived all five mass extinctions.
Neško and Ines speak about this magical world of sea creatures, who surround their vulnerable bodies with mother-of-pearl armor of impressive shapes, with great enthusiasm and respect. Both graduated from the Faculty of Maritime Studies at the University of Dubrovnik and from diving courses. Every day, after work, they go out to sea with a boat and dive into the depths of the sea. There, as they say, one feels time and again the beauty of life and the incredible perfection and tranquility of nature. Their large collection of seashells was started quite by accident.
“We were decorating the children’s room for our older son, who has been fascinated by the sea from a young age. I tried to make a real sea ambience. We started with a few stuffed fish, starfish, fisherman’s nets, seashells... The walls filled up and the number of specimens outgrew the scale of the children’s room. Neško is a collector at heart and when he gets hold of a topic, he does not stop exploring because he wants to know everything. It’s like a disease,” Ines explains with a laugh.
During the blessing of the houses, which takes place in Konavle between Christmas and New Years, their small museum or children’s room was blessed by Cavtat’s parish priest, Don Mato, who suggested that they display this valuable collection to the public at St. Nicholas’ Church, in the very center of Cavtat.
“As fate would have it, at the same time another collector, a priest, was trying to find a home for part of his collection with beautiful display shelves, due to his imminent retirement. So, all of a sudden we had a place and a way to show the collection. For five months, we worked all day long, arranging the space, doing inventory, setting up and designing the layout of the exhibits, so that in May 2022 we could finally open up for visitors,” explains Neško Miljan Popović.
“The idea was to make a place where everyone could learn more about nature, the sea, seashells. We want to help people connect with the world they live in, but also to become aware of humans’ inglorious and devastating impact on nature and our responsibility to repair the damage for generations to come. People react to beautiful things, and we don’t want our exhibition to seem like a catalogue of losses; a glimpse of biodiversity that has disappeared. Seashells offer a simple way to reconnect people with nature, to help bridge the gap between people and the living world around us. They simply remind us how beautiful the world can be.”
“The exhibition opening generated great interest, and every visitor was touched by the beauty that we wish to protect. We have created this family project from the heart, which means that we are funded only by our own achievements. The better we work, the more we can fulfill our mission of inspiring young people in proactive environmental protection,” says Ines.
“Here, one-third of the exhibits were collected by our hands, and the rest was purchased or exchanged. We travel a lot, mostly to rock music concerts, which we adore. We combine concert trips with diving locations. So far, we’ve dived in Australia, Cuba, Florida, Jamaica, and the Maldives. Wherever we go, we go diving, visit beaches, and we buy specimens at fish markets from local fishermen,” says Neško. Besides seashells, he also collects guitars, which adorn their family home, and many have signatures from his favorite musicians.
“Despite numerous experiences of diving in the world’s seas and oceans, it is most beautiful to dive in the Adriatic,” according to the couple. Ines, who also creates underwater photography, says that the light and clarity in the Adriatic seabed is incomparable to tropical seas.
By: Katarina Fiorović