Maribor Regional Museum

Maribor Regional Museum is a multidisciplinary general museum for the broader Maribor region, with a rich archaeological, ethnological and cultural-historical heritage. Originating in 1903, the museum keeps about one hundred thousand exhibits, coming from different periods from the Neolithic to the present, which divided into eleven collections.

History

The origins of Maribor Regional Museum may be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when three separate museum collections existed in Maribor - the Diocesan Museum (founded in 1896), the Museum Society collection (founded in 1902) and the Historical Society for Slovene Styria collection (founded in 1903). These three institutions were amalgamated in 1920 and 1924 to form the Maribor Regional Museum.

By the year 1938 the collections housed in the premises of the former prison in today's Cankarjeva street. In 1938 the Museum was relocated to Maribor Castle, and in the same year a so-called 'burger section of the Maribor Regional Museum' was set up. This was followed in 1943 by the establishment of dedicated archaeological and ethnological collections, and in 1947 by the addition of several other special collections. In 1954 part of the Museum's art collection was transferred to Maribor Art Gallery, and in 1958 the National Liberation collection was transferred to the new Maribor National Liberation Museum. A pharmacy collection was added in 1957 and a costume collection - the only one of its kind in Slovenia - was established in 1965. From 1969 the latter also included military uniforms.

In 1996, the museum has completely renewed the restoration workshop. Significant gain is also the arrangement of the Museum Exhibition Grounds (Muzejsko razstavišče), which disburdened the premises occupied by a permanent museum exhibition. In 2004 we started with the renovation works of the museum building and the museum itself. A new permanent exhibition will be ready in a renovated castle until 2012.

Programme / Mission

The Maribor Regional Museum is a general museum that deals with collecting, protecting, preserving, researching, exhibiting and popularising moveable cultural heritage from the fields of archaeology, ethnology and cultural history in the broader Maribor region. With museum collections, exhibitions, events, knowledge and documents we encourage interest in culture, the history of our region and we help broaden knowledge about it.

Venues, branches

Main quaters are in the Maribor castle. The Museum also incorporates two temporary exhibition spaces: the Gallery Grad and the Museum Exhibition Grounds (Muzejsko razstavišče). Maribor Regional Museum runs the satellite Maribor Synagogue Cultural Centre.

Collections

The Maribor castle itself is already reach in the major construction achievements, such as baroque staircase, Loretska Chapel and Knights' Hall. It hosts eleven collections with over 52 000 exhibits: archaeological collection of finds from the area of Podravje from Mežiška dolina to Pomurje; ethnological collection of culture of Alpine area (Pohorje, Kozjak, Carinthia) and of Pannonian area (Slovenske gorice, Dravsko polje, Pomurje); costume collection of noble and middle-class clothing and accessories, a collection of fashionable sheets and collection of uniforms; lapidary collection occupies most of the courtyard and corridors and includes several monuments. There is also a Jewish tombstone dating from the 15th century, before Maribor's once sizeable Jewish community was banished in 1497; collection of the town's history, including the town insignia, the sword and sceptre of the town judge, town seals from the late 13th to the early 20th centuries, the keys of the town gates and a bag for keeping the town's keys; pharmacy collection, presented in a reconstruction of a pharmacist's dispensary; collection of sacred art presents painting and sculptures from the Gothic to the Baroque periods; collection of weapons in volume among the largest in Slovenia covers the arms and equipment from the late Middle Ages to the mid-20th century; numismatic collection of coins from 13th to 20th century; art history collection of paintings, sculpture and graphics from various parts of Styria from 14th to 20th century; craft collection of domestic and imported ceramic, pewter products, lamps, brass utensils and articles of goldsmiths' craft from 18th to 19th century, collection of glassware from the Pohorje glassworks; furniture collection of the aristocratic and bourgeois furniture of late Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism, Biedermeier and Art Nouveau, collection of historical clocks and musical instruments.

International Cooperation

The museum participates in international project Bastion, which is the neighbourhood program of Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia, to be implemented from 2005. Project is partly financed by European Union under the Community Initiative Program INTERREG IIIA.

Education

Museum houses concerts, lectures, expert meetings, our publishing activities make our research findings accessible to the public.

Exhibitions

The permanent exhibition in Maribor castle, which was withdrawn in 2004 because of the renovation of the museum building, is available online as virtual presentation. In 2012 a new permanent exibition will be set up. There are many temporary exhibitions taking place in both exhibition spaces: in 2009/2010 exhibition on fifty years of conservation and restoration activities in the Maribor Regional Museum: Preteklost sedanjosti – sedanjost prihodnosti (The Past of the Present – the Present of the Future); in 2009 to celebrate the Year of Zoran Mušič: Nismo poslednji (We aren't the Last) and an exhibition on current archaeological discoveries.

Publishing / Publications

Publishing activity includes the exhibition catalogues on permanent and temporary exhibitions, serial publication Osvetljena dediščina (The Illuminated Heritage), publications of scientific papers, like Na poti strpnosti: monoteistične religije in verska svoboda (Towards the Tolerance: Monotheistic Religion and Religious Freedom) in 2009.

External links

[http://www.pmuzej-m