Planica Museum

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Planiški muzej

Rateče, SI-4283 Rateče - Planica

http://www.nc-planica.si/

info@nc-planica.si

Phone386 (0) 31 689 806

Managed bySlovene Sports Museum

 Planica Institute of Sports of the Republic of Slovenia

The Planica Museum is dedicated to the history of ski jumping and flying in Planica, an alpine valley in north-western Slovenia. Historically, this valley has been one of the prime sites for the development of ski flying as a sports discipline of its own, and consequently the museum also presents the wider history of ski jumping as such. Nevertheless, it's main focus is to present and develop both the cultural as well as technical heritage of almost a century of ski jumping in Planica.

Set in a newly constructed pavilion as a part of a nordic skiing complex called the Planica Nordic Centre, the museum opened its doors in 2016. Its exhibition was collected and set up by the Slovene Sports Museum, which is formally a part of the Planica Institute of Sports.

Background

The history of ski jumps in the Planica valley starts in the late 1920s, when first considerations to develop the valley into an international sports tourism centre surfaced. This was followed by the construction of the first ski jumping hill in 1930. A much bigger one, called the Bloudek Giant [Bloudkova velikanka], was finished in 1934, when it also claimed its first world record. Soon after, the first ever jump over 100 metres was realised there, and along it also a new discipline called ski flying. Until 1950, all but one ski flying world record was achieved in Planica.

In 1969, another and even more ambitious flying hill was erected. This one followed suit as once again the prime site for most of record lengths until 2005. Together with some exceptional sportsman, all of this played a significant part in Planica becoming something of a cultural phenomena in Slovenia.

The Planica Nordic Centre

By the end of 2015, the Planica Nordic Centre was completed and inaugurated. It is a modern nordic skiing complex that boasts eight newly built or renovated ski jumping and flying hills and which also caters to cross-country skiing and various summer activities. The three bureaus that handled the architectural dimensions of the project – from landscape design to the pavilion that houses the museum – are Studio AKKA, A biro and Stvar. Their work was honoured for outstanding Slovene achievements in visual creativity by the TREND award 2015.

Museum exhibitions

The museum is divided into three parts, each of them on its own floor. The ground floor, freely open for everyone, is composed of a few interactive video displays that present and illustrate both the local as well as global histories of ski jumping and cross-country skiing.

The upper two floors deal with the development of ski jumping in Planica and with its prime protagonists, the sportsman as well as the craftsman. Of the latter, the most important figures are Stanko Bloudek, Ivan Rožman and the brothers Vlado and Janez Gorišek. The first two are responsible for the "Bloudek Giant", and the era of this ski jumping hill (1934 – 1969) is covered on the first floor. The construction of the Gorišek brothers hill marks the second era, which is dealt with on the second floor.

The museum collection displays various pieces of ski jumping equipment, different cups and medals, accessories of the aforementioned engineers, some archival specimens of the technology used by Radio-Television Slovenia to transmit the jumps, a sport suit worn by Slovenian jumpers at the cult 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, and so on. There is naturally also a series of explanatory texts, pictures and videos.

Of a more interactive nature are simulators of actual ski jumps and, if slightly less physical, of ski jumping judging. Though not directly a part of the museum, there is also a wind tube that enables the experience of floating.

See also

• Slovene Sports Museum
• Radio-Television Slovenia
• Studio AKKA

External link

• Planica Nordic Centre website (in Slovenian)
• Planica Institute of Sports website (in Slovenian)
• A presentation of the Planica Nordic Centre (in English)
• Planica Nordic Centre on Wikipedia