An art gallery before World War II, it was converted into a mosque under the Independent State of Croatia and was subsequently transformed into the Museum of the Revolution in post-war Yugoslavia.

After some negotiation, Meštrović’s proposal was accepted and an endowment for the construction of the House of Fine Arts of King Petar the Great Emancipator was established in 1933.

[5] The pavilion functioned as an art gallery for only three years before it was turned into a mosque in 1941, at the beginning of World War II, as a gesture of the Independent State of Croatia towards Bosnian and Croatian Muslims.

[7] The interior of the mosque was decorated with stucco patterns based on early Croatian ribbon motifs created by the sculptors Botuhinski, Brill, Ivanković, Jean, Loboda, Lozica, Matijević, Papić, Penić, Perić, Radauš, Štigler, and Turkalj.

[9] Architect Vjenceslav Richter headed the project to design the Museum of the Revolution, which was to display documents pertaining to Partisan battles during World War II.

In May 1990, the Croatian Association of Artists (HDLU), headed by Ante Rašić, organized the exhibition Dokumenti-Argumenti to present the history of the building.

In 1993, the City Council of Zagreb granted permission to the Croatian Association of Artists to move their seat back to the pavilion.

They organized an exhibition held at the Meštrović Pavilion, entitled "Croatia to the World" (Hrvatska svijetu), including over a thousand items connected to the thirty-eight masterminds.

[15] The 38 great Croatians in the list are: Ivo Andrić, Giorgio Baglivi, Josip Belušić, Roger Joseph Boscovich, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, Ivan Česmički, Marin Getaldić, Franjo Hanaman, Jerome, Marcel Kiepach, Julije Klović, Slavko Kopač, Benedikt Kotruljević, Zinka Kunc-Milanov, Antun Lučić, Giovanni Luppis, Dora Maar, Marko Marulić, Ivan Meštrović, Andrija Mohorovičić, Franciscus Patricius, Slavoljub Eduard Penkala, Marco Polo, Herman Potočnik, Vladimir Prelog, Mario Puratić, Lavoslav Ružan, Andrea Schiavone, David Schwarz, Pope Sixtus V, Mia Slavenska, Andrija Štampar, Rudolf Steiner, Nikola Tesla, Milka Trnina, Faust Vrančić, Ivan Vučetić, and Nikola IV Zrinski.