Technical Museum of Slovenia

The Technical Museum of Slovenia was founded by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in 1951 on the initiative of Ciril Rekar and the Association of Engineers and Technicians. The main aim of the Technical Museum of Slovenia is to research, collect and present Slovenia's technical heritage to the public, and to protect historically important technical buildings, installations and machines. The museum regularly joins the Museums on a Summer Night project.

History

The Technical Museum was established within the buildings of the former Bistra Carthusian Monastery, which had been managed since 1947 by the Forestry Institute of Slovenia and already used to house the institute's museum collections. Consequently when it opened in 1951 the Technical Museum of Slovenia focused on the institute's forestry, woodworking and hunting collections. During its long history the museum has managed a number of collections which have since become independent institutions, including Kropa Iron Forging Museum, the Koroška Regional Museum, Ravne na Koroškem Unit, Idrija Municipal Museum and the Coal Mining Museum of Slovenia in Velenje.

Collections

Today the Technical Museum incorporates numerous departments. The Forestry and Woodworking Department originated as the Forestry Institute Collection and is displayed in a 300-square-metre exhibition area. The Hunting Museum Collection also originated in 1947 and now occupies a 700-square-metre exhibition area equipped with computer-supported multimedia as well as film and sound recordings. The Fishing Department, opened in 1982, incorporates an ecology section. The Transportation Department occupies the largest exhibition area of about 2,500 square metres, and includes Slovene road vehicles (the oldest from the pre-war period), a collection of prestigious presidential limousines, a collection of automobiles on long-term loan from the German Technical Museum in Berlin and Slovene motorcycles from the Tomos of Koper Collection. The Textile Department presents the history of spinning and weaving and the machine production of fabrics and organises workshops in weaving, sewing, and painting on silk and cotton. The Department of Agricultural Machinery Collection, housed in a 1,500-square-metre outbuilding, includes a wheelwright's workshop, a farrier's workshop, and an exhibition on the history of the mill. Demonstrations of smithing, corn grinding in the mill, and bread baking are regularly organised here. The Written Word: History of printing in Slovenia collection (opened in 2006) displays the history of printing, paper, printing inks, letterpress, book binding, office printing. Demonstrations include type casting, setting by hand, machine set, hand printing by printing machine, illustration printing by plate and book stitching. The collection of the Electric Machinery Department is displayed in three rooms with an exhibition area of about 370 square metres and presents the history of electrification in Slovenia.

International cooperation

In 2009 Technical Museum of Slovenia launched the Central European Science Adventure – CESA project and cooperated with five technical museums in the region: Vienna Technical Museum (Austria), Hungarian Museum of Science, Technology and Transport in Budapest, Technical Museum in Brno (Czech Republic), Slovak Technical Museum in Košice and City Engineering Museum in Krakow (Poland). The project re-evaluated and presented on the touring exibition interesting inventions and discoveries, as well as renowned and unknown scientists and inventors in the field of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, mountain science, construction, etc. The web lexicon is accessible on the project website.

A Taste of Europe was a multi-annual project conceived by the Museum of Work in Norrköping, Sweden, to foster intercultural dialogue about food production and everyday consumption in the light of national differences and similarities, changes over time, climate and environmental issues. Each of the nine invited museums selected one food product that is of special national importance. Thus the Technical Museum of Slovenia presented honey (the reputation of Slovene beekeeping became known as early as 1689 via Janez Vajkard Valvasor!), while other museums featured milk (Sweden), wheat (Museum of Hungarian Agriculture in Budapest), pork (Worker's Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark), beer (National Museum of Agriculture in Prague, Czech Republic), potato (Estonian National Museum in Tartu), bread (Finnish Labour Museum Werstas in Tampere), fish (Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, Fife) and olive oil (Museum of Portimão, Portugal). Nine exhibition variations were accompanied with interesting texts, available online.

Both projects got support of the EU Culture Programme.

Branches

The museum manages various satellites, including Bogenšperk Castle, Pantz Forester's Gravity Cableway, the Museum of Post and Telecommunications, and the Soteska Depot of Vehicles.

External links

Technical Museum of Slovenia website
Tehnična založba Slovenije
CESA website - a lexicon of CE scientists includes also F. Avčin, S. Bloudek and A. Codelli - Central European Science Adventure project
A Taste of Europe project website
HONEY, on apiculture in Slovenia - Taste of Europe project

Technical Museum of Slovenia

Contents

History

Collections

International cooperation

Branches

See also

External links

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