National Museum of Contemporary History

The National Museum of Contemporary History, originating in 1944 as the Scientific Institute of the Executive Committee of the National Liberation Front (IOOF), which subsequently became the Museum of National Liberation (1948). In 1952 it was relocated to Cekin Castle, situated in Ljubljana's Tivoli Park, where it still resides today. In 1962 it became the Museum of the People's Revolution and acquired its current name in the 1990s. It houses collections of items from the First and the Second World War, as well as from the period between the wars, the era of socialism, and the later formation of the new Slovene state. It has a branch in Brestanica in the Rajhenburg Castle. In 2009 the Slovene Police donated about 30 pieces of weapons from the Second World War and from other violent skirmishes in Slovene history.

Mission

The National Museum of Contemporary History is a state museum responsible for the movable and intangible cultural heritage of the 20th-century Slovene history. It houses fine art and documentation department, a photographic department containing more than a million original photographs, a conservation–restoration workshop, an administration department and a library. Different events take place in the museum's two halls, such as the Festival Unicum.

Cekin Castle

In the mid-18th century, when Lamberg Castle was erected by Count Leopold Karl Lamberg, the mansion stood in a Ljubljana suburb. The architect Johann Georg Schmidt built it in 1725–1752 without high ambitions, as it was designed merely for dancing parties. Its later name Cekin derives from a deformation of a family name Szögeny, who was later an owner. The mansion had several eminent residents: Italian viceroy Eugen Beauharnais in 1813, the poet France Prešeren was a domestic teacher in 1818–1819, and family Kozler as last owners before the nationalisation after the Second World War.

The building was transformed into a museum by the plans of Edo Mihevc in 1952, who inserted a mezzanine above the ground floor. In 1992 the mansion was rearranged again by architect Jurij Kobe, when the attic was converted into a warehouse, and an elevator out of steel and glass was added at the backside.

The two-storey late Baroque mansion has a central projection and behind it an entrance hall on the ground floor and the Knights' Hall on the first floor, which used to be a dancing hall. The Knights' Hall has Baroque paintings on walls and a ceiling in Illusionistic style and two decorative stoves. The main staircase is at its backside. It is declared a cultural monument of state importance.

Collections

The museum's collections include weapons, military equipment, numismatics, textiles, medals, and decorations, plaques, postcards, photographs, films and videos, badges and signs, rubber stamps, seals and printing blocks, philately and cartography. A fine art collection, a collection of personal items and documents, and of gifts to former president Milan Kučan are worth mentioning as well.

One of the most impressive collections is the comprehensive archive of the photo-reporter Edi Šelhaus (1919–2011) with 2,026 original b/w negatives from the Second World War and over 137,000 original b/w and colour photographs as well as slides and negatives, donated by the author (in 2000) and his main employee, the Delo Publishing House (in 2009).

Exhibitions

Of particular note is the permanent exhibition Slovenes in the 20th Century, opened in 1996 and revised in 2006, which illustrates the history of Slovenes from 1914 until the present day. The exhibition presents Slovene economic, political, and cultural history in its broadest sense. In addition to turning points in history, such as wars and the foundation of the new state, the exhibition also attempts to illustrate everyday life in the historical development. Because of this exhibition, the museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award in 1998.

The exhibition displays Terror during World War II, the Partisan Sanitary Service and Printing Houses and Wartime Press 1941–1945, a reconstructed Partisan Workshop, and a hand-operated printing works.

The equipment in the final exhibition room enables visitors to browse the computer database for exhibited objects. By using modern communication or audiovisual technology, the museum also tries to provide visitors with information on material which is not on display. Soon all documentation will be available online.

The museum also prepares exhibitions for overseas touring, for example the exhibition The Making of Slovenia, which toured to Dublin in 2002, and the exhibition Culture in the National Liberation War, which travelled to Sgonicco near Trieste in 2003. An exhibition entitled There over the Hills is like here, European Themes of Slovene History, accompanied by multilingual catalogues, is readily available for touring. The borrowing of museum objects and documents is possible in accordance with state regulations.

The museum includes a temporary exhibition area and a lecture room in the Knights' Hall with 30 seats which is suitable for screenings and lectures. Some previous temporary exhibitions are: Unite, Unite Poor Peasants: persecution of farmers in Slovenia 1945–1955 (2009), The World of Music in the 60s – on the 90th Anniversary of the Photojournalist Edi Šelhaus (2009) about the first Yugoslav jazz festivals between 1960 and 1963 and festivals of popular songs in the 1960s , memorial exhibitions dedicated to Jože Pučnik and Janez Drnovšek (2008), Slovenian European Union Council Presidency 2008 (2008), Slovenes and the First World War 1914–1918 (2008), State of Slovenians, Croats and Serbs 1918–2008 (2008).

Publications

The temporary exhibitions are accompanied by catalogues. In addition the museum publishes its newsletter Museum's News twice a year (in Slovenian and English), also available online, and monographies on Slovene recent history, like The Making of Slovenia (in English) in 2009, and video and electronic media, like Art Collection : Authors and their Works (in Slovenian and English) in 2007, and Slovenian Museums (in Slovenian and English) in 1997.

External links

Gallery

The Cekin Mansion at night. National Museum of Contemporary History, 2012.

The tank from the Ten-Day War in Slovenia (1991) in front of the National Museum of Contemporary History. On the eve of the International Women's Day in 2012 it was sprayed pink by the unknown activists and became a new popular landmark in Ljubljana. It is owned by the Military Museum of Slovenian Armed Forces and was transferred to the Park of Military History Pivka only a few months after the action. The pink paint was removed.

The National Museum of Contemporary History located at the Cekin Mansion in Park Tivoli, Ljubljana, since 1952. As captured in 2013.

Panoramc view of the National Museum of Contemporary History housed in the Cekin Mansion, 2013.

The old street game 'Ristanc' in front of the National Museum of Contemporary History, 2013.

Cekin Mansion, a 18th century building based on plans by the Viennese Baroque architect Fischer von Erlach, located in Tivoli Park in Ljubljana. Today the mansion houses the National Museum of Contemporary History, 2014.

A Baroque Cekin Mansion in park Tivoli in Ljubljana, since 1951 housing the National Museum of Contemporary History, 2014.

France Cerar's photo documentation presented at the National Museum of Contemporary History, 2014

An opening ceremony at the National Museum of Contemporary History in Ljubljana. A temporary exhibition presented France Cerar's photo documentation, 2014.