Back in the year 1970, on the initiative of teacher Nikola Micić Landa, the Historical Museum collection was founded as a part of the Main City Library in Knjaževac, and since 1971 the city has taken care of antiquities and items from the nearby sites.
As an independent cultural institution, the Homeland Museum of Knjaževac started its work in 1980 in order to to collect, preserve, scientifically process and present the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Knjaževac area. In 1996, after the revitalization and reconstruction of one wing of the museum building, a part of the rich fund of the Homeland Museum was presented through a new permanent exhibition, innovated and modernized in 2010.
During several decades of devoted work, the Homeland Museum of Knjaževac became a complex institution composed of several departments: archaeology, ethnology, cultural history and art history, conservation, photo documentation, department for education and museum guide service, i.e. the main building of the Homeland Museum, the City Museum in the house of Aleksa Aca Stanojević, Archeo-Ethno Park in Ravna, late antique archaeological site Timacum Minus and the Museum of Stara Planina in Balta Berilovac village.
The Homeland Museum of Knjaževac, as a complex type museum, aims to be a regional museological and conservation research center with modern program schedule that goes beyond local and regional framework by content and topics, with an increased educational and promotional role. Permanent exhibitions of the museum are designed as a sort of an identity card of the city and are exposed in all the facilities of the museum.
For over a decade, the Museum has been exhibiting art pieces from Momčilo Moša Todorović’s private collection (art gallery Workshop of the soul, Belgrade) painted by some of the most significant contemporary Serbian artists, as well as those who lived and worked in XX century, such as Pedja Milosavljević, Ljubica Cuca Sokić, Milan Konjović, Milivoje Nikolajević, Aleksandar Cvetković, Dado Djurić, Uroš Tošković and many others.
Numerous musical and literary evenings, presentations and promotions, and also creative workshops are held from spring till autumn in the yard of the Homeland Museum of Knjaževac.
The permanent exhibition of the Homeland Museum of Knjaževac, that is depicting the rich cultural heritage of Knjaževac area is located at Karadjordjeva Street no. 15 in the building that was built in 1906 as a dual residential building owned by the family Sibinović. Today, it is a cultural monument under state protection. The building is an example of civil architecture with stylistic features of the neoclassicism, typical of the period at the beginning of the twentieth century.