Celje Regional Museum

Celje Regional Museum was founded in 1882 at the premises of the present-day Celje Music School, but already in the 1920s the city council discussed the option of moving the museum to the Old Counts' Mansion, a late Renaissance building. It was only after World War II that the mansion was renovated to be used as a municipal museum, presenting cultural, historical, and ethnological objects from Celje and its environs. Celje Municipal Museum was renamed the Celje Regional Museum in 1966. In 1990 it was nominated for the European Museum of the Year award.

Collections

The first part of the collection occupies an area of 240 square metres and presents eras from the Stone Age Potočka Zijalka Paleolithic Cave to the late Roman period and the city of Celeia. A Roman lapidary collection with an area of 440 square metres in the cellars of the Old Counts' Mansion is supplemented with the outdoor lapidary collection of architectural remains of public and private buildings and a rich collection of milestones.

In the Major Hall, the famous Celje Ceiling in tempera on canvas (14.45 x 9.7m) is a singular example of secular painting from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries in Slovenia. The museum also houses important Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Classicist, Empire, Biedermeier, and Historicist paintings, sculpture, frescoes, furniture and furnishings, clocks, miniatures and portraits. One of the highlights of the Celje Regional Museum's permanent exhibition is the glass case with the skulls of the notorious Counts of Celje, previously buried beyond the main altar of the Church of St Mary.

The ethnological collection on the ground floor features a wide spectrum of exhibits belonging to the material and spiritual culture of the population of the wider Celje region (ploughing implements, small agricultural tools, milk processing implements, accessories for processing flax and wool, small kitchen utensils, lights and textiles, woodworking products) as well as a collection of folk art.

The museum has over 370 beehive panels from the Zadrečka dolina and Savinja valleys. The numismatic collection covers an area of 60 square metres and the period from the Late Iron Age until the 20th century. Celje is the only town in Slovenia that had its own mint twice in the course of two millennia (in the 1st century BCE under the Celts and again in the 15th century). The collection of old Savinja ceramics in the museum is one of the most exquisite and richest collections in Slovenia; it presents products from various ceramic factories established in the 19th century. A special 53 square-metre area on the ground floor of the Old Count's Mansion is dedicated to Alma Karlin, a best-seller writer and intellectual born in Celje in 1889, who studied languages in London and brought back a substantial collection of objects from her extensive journeys around the world.

Dislocated units

Archeological sites

Except from the Princely Palace archaeological remains of ancient Celeia and the Old Counts' Mansion lapidary under or in the premises of museum. The museum manages several satellite archaeological sites including an Early Christian Baptistery dating from the 5th century CE; restored remains from the 2nd century CE, located on a terrace above the river Savinja's left bank Temple of Hercules on Miklavški hrib; the Rifnik Archaeological Site with its findings presented in the neighbouring town of Šentjur in a display called Rifnik and its Treasures, The Šentjur Museum Collection. One of Slovenia's best preserved archaeology highlights is definitely Šempeter v Savinjski Dolini Roman Necropolis showing the graveyard of rich Roman inhabitants living in Celeia (96–235 AD )in the time of Traian and Severan Dinasty. An important palaeontologic and archaeologic site is Potočka Zijalka Paleolithic Cave under Olševa mountain where the bones of 40 different animal species from the stone age and hunting weapons were found and are on display in the permanent exhibition Potočka zijalka, First Exhibition Room in Solčava, Logarska Dolina.

Museums

The museum's dislocated collections and historical sites include The Leber Carriage Depot at the Dobrna Museum Collection. Located in the old Horse Stables in the spa town of Dobrna, the museum presents a collection of carriages. The Schwentner House, The Vransko Museum Collection, Vransko is the homestead of Lavoslav Schwentner (1865–1952), a famous librarian and publisher from Ljubljana who was born in Vransko. He was also an important Maecenas of the literati of Slovene Moderna. The house of the Schwentner family, with its rich bourgeois interior, furniture and equipment from the beginning of 20th century has been preserved almost intact, showing the family's lifestyle.

The Šmid Ethnological Collection, The Planina Museum Collection, Planina pri Sevnici presents the ethnological collection of Janez Šmid, who was dedicated to preserve the Kozjansko heritage of everyday life. The "Glaziers'" Church, The Šentjur Museum Collection, Loka pri Žusmu is a Church of St Leopold museum of glass products and crafts that were made in private glasshouses in the Kozjansko region from the 17th century on.

The homestead of important Slovene composer and army officer Risto Savin, who composed operas and ballets based on stories from national history and literature, for instance, the operas Poslednja straža (1898), Lepa Vida (1907), Matija Gubec (1923) and the ballet Čajna punčka (1922). The Gornji Grad Ethnological Collection, The Gornji grad Museum Collection presents the ecclesiastical history of Slovenia as well as ethnological and palaeontological collections.

Temporary exhibitions

In honour of Alma M. Karlin's 120th anniversary of birth, the Alma M. Karlin Journey exhibition was on display until 2012. A book on her life was published by the museum for the occasion.

Other previous temporary exhibitions have included Medieval floor tiles in Slovenia (2010), a survey on rare culture heritage of medieval paving stones collected from monasteries, castles, and churches in Slovenia; The Sanctuaries on the Riverside, an archaeological exhibition on Celtic and Roman cults in Celeia; and Mohn & Kothgasser, Transparent-enamelled Biedermeier Glass, an exhibition of the museum's glass collection (2010).

In Strmol Manor, Rogatec, some 40km from Celje, a travelling exhibition Cookery Book is on display showing recipes, kitchenware, and how and what our grand grandmothers were cooking in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The exhibition guide is an interesting cookbook presenting the collection and old recipes.

Collaborations and Awards

From 1989 on the Celje Regional Museum has been traditionally collaborating with Verein Steiermarkisches Glaskunstzentrum und Glasmuseum, Bärnbach, Austria, where curator Jože Rataj and author Paul von Lichtenberg prepare exhibitions on glass making.

External links

Celje Regional Museum website (in Slovenian)
Roman Necropolis in Šempeter
Gornji Grad Museum Collection

References

Alma Karlin's virtual home by Celje Central Library
Risto Savin on Wikipedija (in Slovenian)
Counts of Celje on Wikipedija (in Slovenian)
Zvonka Zupanič Slavec: New Method of Identifying Family Related Skulls (pdf), a summary of a study on the Counts of Celje skulls

Gallery

Matthew 12.12 by artist Gregor Kregar, in the exhibition Sculpture Today curated by Tomaž Brejc, Alenka Domjan, Jiri Kočica, Polona Tratnik - in the lapidary of the Celje Regional Museum, 2003–2010

Roman archeological finds; Headless statue in the lower part of Knežji dvorec in Celje

The so-called Old Counts' Mansion, one of the mansions that host the Celje Regional Museum.

A 19th-century Ukiyo-e woodcut by Andō Hiroshige, Alma Karlin Collection, Celje Regional Museum, K 825.

Korean Fan, Alma Karlin Collection, Celje Regional Museum, K 80.

This Japanese bronze elephant pagoda incense burner is one of the many items featured in the online East Asian Collections in Slovenia. Collection of Objects from Asia and South America, Celje Regional Museum, A7.

Celje Regional Museum

Contents