Tobacco Museum

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Tobačni muzej

Tobačna tovarna, Tobačna 5, SI-1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia,

http://www.mm-lj.si

tobacna@tobacna.si

Phone386 (0) 1 477 7344, 386 (0) 1 251 4025

ProprietorCity Museum of Ljubljana and Tobačna Ljubljana

Abstract

Today the Tobačna tovarna ('Tobacco Factory') premises are an important contemporary visual arts exhibition venue (the 2005 edition of the Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Art).

Following an agreement in 1989 between City Museum of Ljubljana and the Tobačna Ljubljana company, the former, assisted by external collaborators, started to research and collect material relating to the history of tobacco, its production and the history of the tobacco factory. On 21 March 1991 the museum presented the results of its activities in a one-month exhibition called 'Tobacco and its Thrills' at Križanke Cultural Information Centre. The exhibition was the most prominent event of the tobacco factory’s 120th anniversary celebrations. Complemented and enhanced, this exhibition subsequently became the basis for a permanent museum collection in the renovated premises of the former warehouse of Tobačna Ljubljana. On 9 April 1992 this collection was declared a cultural monument and opened to the public as the permanent collection of the Tobacco Museum.

The collection is the first museum presentation in a series of envisaged presentations of old industrial works in Ljubljana. The chronologically-arranged museum collection presents a survey of the processing and use of tobacco from its discovery to the present. The emphasis is on the history of the Ljubljana Tobacco Factory, the organisation of the state monopoly and the construction of a large new complex of factory buildings in the area between the Southern Railway and Tržaška cesta. This complex of buildings is a splendid example of industrial architecture from the latter half of the 19th century. The collection aims to present to the visitor the significance and role of the Tobacco Factory and the way of life of its workers over the past 120 years. At the end of the 19th century the Tobacco Factory employed nearly 2,500 workers. Owing to the specific nature of the production most of them were women. The legend of the cigararice, the women who made cigars, has not been forgotten, because they left their mark in some of the town’s neighbourhoods.

The collection introduces the visitor to the production processes of different tobacco products. The factory began its operation with handmade cigar production, but soon expanded to the production of cigarettes, pipe tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco and tobacco extract. Special emphasis is given to the product which made the Tobacco Factory of Ljubljana famous throughout Europe in the previous century, the so-called 'Virginian' cigar. The collection also draws attention to the development of a smoking culture as well as to different conceptions of the healing properties and health risks of tobacco. In a total area of 450 square metres more than 300 museum exhibits are displayed, including photographs, portraits, documents and reconstructions; of special interest to the visitor are the precious collections of pipes from different periods, tobacco and cigarette cases, cigar and cigarette holders, the products of the tobacco factory over the past seven decades and their packaging, and works of art on smoking.

The permanent exhibition at Tobačna Ljubljana is an important link in presentation of the history of Ljubljana and its inhabitants. The selected material on the themes of tobacco and the Tobacco Factory sheds light on the economic development of the city, its way of life, urban development and the development of industrial architecture in the 19th century.