National Museum of Contemporary History

The National Museum of Contemporary History, originated in 1944 as the Scientific Institute of the Executive Committee of the Slovene Liberation Front (IOOF), has its seat in Cekin Castle, situated in Tivoli Park in Ljubljana. It houses collections of items from the First and the Second World War, between both wars, from the socialism and about the formation of a new state. It has a branch in Brestanica in the Rajhenburg Castle. Slovene Police donated about 30 pieces of weapons from the Second World War and from other violent skirmish in 2009.

History

The IOOF subsequently became the Museum of National Liberation (1948). It was relocated to Cekin Castle in 1952; in 1962 it became the Museum of People's Revolution and acquired its current name in the 1990s.

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, conservation – restoration workshop, administration department and a library. In both halls different events take place, i.e. Festival Unicum.

Cekin Castle

By the time of a mid 18th century, when Lamberg Castle was erected by Count Leopold Karl Lamberg, the mansion was standing in 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 in 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 devoted for 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 ceiling in Illusionistic style and two decorative stoves. The main staircase is at its backside. It is declared a cultural monument of state importance.

In front of the mansion stands in its axis a chestnuts avenue. Contents of the building are marked with a tank at the entrance.

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. Fine art collection, a collection of personal items and documents, and of gifts to former president Milan Kučan are to be mentioned as well.

Exhibitions

Of particular note is the permanent exhibition Slovenes in the 20th Century, opened in 1996 in 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 historical development. For this exhibition it was nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award in 1998.

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.

There are displays entitled 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 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 Zgonik near Trieste in 2003. An exhibition entitled There over the Hills is like here, European Themes of Slovene History, accompanied by multilingual catalogues, and 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 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 60’s – 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 1960's , 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. Beside this the museum published newsletter Museum's News twice a year (in Slovene and English) freely available on the world wide web 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 Slovene and English) in 2007, and Slovenian Museums (in Slovene and English) in 1997.

External links

National Museum of Contemporary History

Contents

History

Mission

Cekin Castle

Collections

Exhibitions

Publications

See also

National Liberation collections

External links

Operated by

Financed by