Prešeren House

The former residence of Slovenia's greatest poet Dr France Prešeren (1800-1849) was restored in period style and opened to the public in 1964.

The building, in which Prešeren lived from Autumn 1846 until February 1849, consists of two Late Gothic sections with a shared courtyard, which were joined into one building in the 17th century. In 1977 a memorial room dedicated to poet Simon Jenko, who died in Kranj, was opened on the ground floor of the Prešeren House. The gallery in Prešeren House is used for occasional exhibitions and on the 8 February national holiday of 1981 a cycle of exhibitions was launched entitled 'Recipients of the Prešeren Award'. The memorial collection of Dr France Prešeren occupies the entire upper floor of the house. Two rooms are furnished with authentic furniture: Prešeren's bedroom is on a long-term loan from the National Museum of Slovenia and his lawyer`s office was purchased by the Museum in 1963. The other rooms are used exclusively for a museological presentation of Prešeren as a poet, lawyer and human being.

The exhibits include a censored printer's manuscript of the collection Poezije ('Poems'), an original copy of Poezije from 1847, an original and facsimile of the poem The Baptism at the Savica and a facsimile of some other important poems as well as newspapers and other publications in which his poems were published. The poet's personal archive is particularly interesting. There is also a translation of Prešeren's poems in Bengali and a photocopy of a page with his poems in Chinese. The rooms on the ground floor of Prešeren House in which the gallery is located host numerous exhibition activities. Each year on the anniversaries of the poet's birth and death, exhibitions are staged in connection with his life and work, covering themes such as literary history, cultural history and the fine arts.

See Romanticism and Prešeren in the Literature Section of this portal.

Prešeren House

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