National Museum of Slovenia

National Museum of Slovenia is the country's oldest cultural and scientific institution, established in a year 1821, that holds major historic artefacts and sets museum guidelines and education for Slovenian museums and public. Museum experts and associates publish relevant literature on objects and documents that represent Slovene history and culture. National Museum of Slovenia comprises an Archaeological Department, a Numismatic Cabinet, a Department of Prints and Drawings, a Department of History and Applied Arts, Conservation and Restoration Department and National Museum of Slovenia Library. The museum is home to an extensive collection of archaeological artefacts, furniture, pottery glass and ceramic vessels, glass plate photos, documents, prints, religious objects, historic pictures and sculptures, old coins, medals, orders, banknotes, weapons, armours, sport legends, crafts and applied arts. Artefacts date from palaeolithic to 20th century.

History

National Museum of Slovenia is originating from the Provincial Museum of Carniola, which was established in 1821 and became the National Museum in the time of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1921. In 1923 its ethnographic collections were removed from the National Museum in order to establish the Slovene Ethnographic Museum as an independent institution, and in 1933 a major part of its fine arts collections were likewise transferred to the newly-established National Gallery of Slovenia. In 1944 the Museum of Natural Sciences (now the Museum of Natural History of Slovenia) became an independent institution, but remained in the same building until present times. In year 1946 the museum transferred a major part of its archive material to the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia (ARS). The National Museum was renamed into National Museum of Slovenia in 1992, after Slovenia's state independence.

Departments and collections

Main Museum Building

Highlight items of the museum are Neanderthal flute from the Stone Age cave of Divje Babe, probably oldest instrument in the world 55000 B.C., a bronze situla from Vače, Egyptian Mummy, a unique Roman medallion featuring the bust of Emperor Augustus, early medieval jewellery and arms, famous ancient dugout canoe and selected artefacts from Copper and Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlements of the Ljubljana marshes, Ljubljanica river rich archaeological finds etc., which are presented in the main museum building at Prešernova 20. In recent years the renovation of the museum building has provided the opportunity to create a new archaeological and cultural history depository and a lapidary collection. Material displayed on the upper floor can be removed when major temporary exhibitions are installed. Adjacent to the main museum building there is an exhibition of Roman stone monuments, many of which were discovered in Emona, Ljubljana's earliest incarnation. The collection includes mosaics, altars as well as a sculpture of monumental stone lion. The number of tombstones, stone cemetary urns and sarcophagi illustrate the importance of funerary rites during the Roman period. About 80 Roman milestones from the period 2nd-4th century CE have been discovered in Slovenia, and while many of them remain in their original location, a few are on display in the museum.

Archaeological Department

Numismatic Department

The Museum's Numismatic Department is the only one of its kind in Slovenia and thus also functions as a national reference institution. Its principal tasks, besides collecting, include documentation, professional preservation and scientific study of coins, bank notes and other financial instruments, setting up corpora of classical, medieval and modern age finds from Slovene territory and studying the development of banking and insurance in Slovenia.

Prints and Drawings

The Department of Prints and Drawings operates as part of the library and possesses over 30,000 exhibits. Its holdings are divided into two basic groups - graphic and drawings - and, by contents, into art material and documentary material. The collections include works by domestic and foreign masters, different schools and stylistic trends, different graphic and drawing techniques and thematic units. The museum's collection of religious graphic art, devotional prints and documentary representations is particularly extensive and is of major importance in the reconstruction of national history.

Department of History and Applied Arts

In 2008 the Museum's Department of History and Applied Arts moved to the new premises at Metelkova 25, which offers storerooms in the basement, professional and modern storage space for museum items of various materials and storage demands. Renovated building that used to be before military compound called 4th of July until 1991, was reshaped, adopted and has from year 2008 exhibition rooms to house research collections on the history of applied arts. Occasional exhibitions happen at the attic spaces, where main exhibition topics are those of contemporary design. Ground floor offers spaces for big block buster exhibition events as Primož Trubar 500

Conservation and Restoration Department

Museum has also moved conservation and restoration workshops in this building of National Museum of Slovenia - Metelkova. Administration offices for curators, restoration experts and other members of stuff remained in main building at Prešernova 20 street.

Venues, branches

Regular public guided tours of the exhibition Treasures of the National Museum of Slovenia are organised every third Sunday of the month at 11am and feature the most important and valuable objects from the collections of the museum When not in use, some halls of National Museum can be also hired for presentations, press conferences, receptions and concerts.

The other dislocated branches administered by National Museum of Slovenia are: Bled Castle, Hrušica - Museum Collection and Archaeological Park, and Museum Castle Snežnik.

Documentation and access

With the digitalization of material and the construction of an electronic database about the cultural heritage that its preserves, the National Museum of Slovenia has joined similar European institutions that are attempting to enable the broadest possible access to items of the cultural heritage through the use of modern information technology.

External links

National Museum of Slovenia website