Difference between revisions of "Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran"

Revision as of 15:16, 1 May 2013

The Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum located in the neo-classicist Gabrielli-De Castro Palace in Piran/Pirano

The first collections on the history of seafaring in Piran-Pirano were presented in the Piran Municipal Museum, established in 1954 in the 19th-century Gabrielli Palace. In 1967 the Municipal Museum was renamed the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran. Since that time the museum has conducted extensive research into Slovene maritime history and maritime archaeology, building up an important collection of objects belonging to the material cultural heritage connected with seafaring (maritime historical, art historical and ethnological collection) or with maritime economic branches (salt-making, fishing, maritime trade and the like).

From April 2013 the museum collections are closed due to renovation works.

Background

The museum is named after war hero Sergej Mašera (1912–1941), artillery officer in the former Yugoslav army and a lieutenant of the warship Destroyer Zagreb.

The Gabrielli Palace, built in the middle of the 19th century, stands on the south-east side of the inner harbour of Piran. The façade is marked by a central axis and enriched with classical elements, though the effect is reduced by its unfinished north wing. A columned stone staircase shapes the inside of the palace, decorated at piano nobile, or the "noble floor" with original paintings and stuccos.

Mission

The museum collects, studies, preserves and presents the maritime tangible and intangible heritage of the coastal region and economic branches connected with the sea. It defines Slovenia as a maritime country in the common Mediterranean and European area.

Venues

In 1979, as the result of cooperation with Slovenia's only shipping company Splošna plovba Piran (Portorož), a branch maritime collection was installed in the villa of St Mark in Portorož, now temporarily closed. Two years later in 1981 Tona's House, an old Istrian dwelling in the village of St Peter on the Dragonja, was renovated and opened as an ethnological collection. A third branch museum collection was opened in 1991 following the renovation of a house in the Sečovlje saltpans; in the following years other houses in this location were renovated and the number of the saltpans was increased. The museum also manages the Tartini Memorial Room, housed in the Piran birthplace of composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini.

Another location was established in 2011 in the former Monfort salt storehouse in Portorož, it houses the collection of traditional shipbuilding and the development of water sports.

Monfort Salt Warehouses Portorož, an exhibition space for the Collection of Traditional Shipbuilding and the Development of Water Sports of the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran and Obalne galerije - Coastal Galleries exhibitions and festivals.

The Street Museum Izola, cofunded by PHARE, with the permanent collection of ships in the Alme Vivode Street presents a new way to attract the public. The first phase of the project was realised in 2004 in cooperation with Italian institutions engaging in the revitalisation of city centres and in the preservation, presentation, and popularisation of the common cultural and historical heritage in the area of Aquileia (Italy).

Collections

The museum manages collections, which are on display on the three stories of the Gabrielli Palace if not indicated differently: the archaeological collection with the permanent exhibition Between Land and Sea; the salt-making collection in the Museum of Salt Making, Sečovlje; the ethnological fishing collection of pictures and objects dealing with sea-fishing at Izola, fishing among the Slovenes in the Slovene ethnic territory from Trieste to the Timavo River; the art history collection of Fr Gabriel Gruber's (1740–1805) ship models, seamen's votive tablets, ship figureheads; the maritime history collection of early maritime history, Austrian and Austro-Hungarian period, and of Slovene mariners in 1918–1945; the collection of Splošna plovba Portorož in Portorož; the ethnological collection in the Tona's House; a library of 14,000 books, consists of a research library, the town archives and the old Civic Library, Biblioteca Civica di Pirano, many books date back to the 16th century, the oldest one being from 1501. Among the most interesting books are the comprehensive late 18th-century Encyclopaedia by Diderot, and the only fully preserved Atlas from 1526 by Pietro Coppo from Izola.

Since 1995 the harbour of the port of Piran in front of the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum has housed the museum's first renovated ship – the yacht Seagull [Galeb] (of the cutter M6 type) previously owned by world-famous ballet dancers Pia and Pino Mlakar. In 2004 Seagull won the old-timers boat race in Trieste.

The exhibition of the collection of traditional shipbuilding and the development of water sports is toned by the atmosphere of the old salt repository which in it day was full up to the roof. It is set at the Monfort salt warehouses in nearby Portorož and features old wooden boats as well as different ship carpenter's tools, sketches, documentary photos and scale models. The other part of the collection presents the sport sailors, posters, diplomas, etc., of different water sport competitions.

International cooperation

The Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum is a member of the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM) and a founding member of the Association of Mediterranean Maritime Museums (AMMM).

Publications

The museum publishes monographies and catalogues of temporary exhibitions concerning maritime topics. In 2009 the museum started publishing a serial publication Izvestja pomorskega muzeja Piran = Strenna del Museo del mare di Pirano. Museum experts publish their articles also in the Annales Journal.

External links

Gallery

Entrance to Museum of Salt Making, Sečovlje, 2020.

Museum of Salt Making, Sečovlje, 2020.

View of Museum of Salt Making, Sečovlje, 2020.

The Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum located in the neo-classicist Gabrielli-De Castro Palace in Piran/Pirano

Shipbuilding tools from a collection of traditional shipbuilding and development of water sports on display in the former repository of salt Monfort in Portorož, managed by Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran

Ship log of commanding officer of the Sankt Georg cruiser, Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Ship model exhibited at Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Exhibition entitled Shipbuilding in Piran, Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Monfort Salt Warehouses Portorož, an exhibition space for the Collection of Traditional Shipbuilding and the Development of Water Sports of the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran and Obalne galerije - Coastal Galleries exhibitions and festivals.

Archeological collection, Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

A view of the underwater finds from the archaeological collection, Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Exterior of Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Interior of Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Permanent collection, Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Ship models from the workshop of the Jesuit priest Gabriel Gruber exhibited at Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Ship model from the workshop of the Jesuit priest Gabriel Gruber exhibited at Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran, 2020.

Entrance to the Tartini Memorial Collection, Piran, 2020.

Ivan Skušek and his wife to be Tsuneko Kondō Kawase in Beijing, between 1918–1920. (The photo is kept in the library of the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, the original is kept by Skušek's great-nephew Janez Lombergar.)

An antique postcard depicting Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in Port Said, Egypt, the stopping point for nearly every ship that sailed through the Suez Canal. Ivan Koršič Postcard Collection, Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran.

Postcards like this one from Shanghai's Yu Garden were a common way for navy personnel to share their travels with those back home. Ivan Koršič Postcard Collection, Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran.

Exterior of Tona’s House, 2020.

Information board, Tona’s House, 2020.

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 == Venues ==
-In 1979, as the result of cooperation with Slovenia's only shipping company Splošna plovba Piran (Portorož), a branch maritime collection was installed in the villa of St Mark in Portorož, now temporarily closed. Two years later in 1981 [[Tona’s House - St Peter's Ethnological Collection|Tona's House]], an old Istrian dwelling in the village of St Peter on the Dragonja, was renovated and opened as an ethnological collection. A third branch museum collection was opened in 1991 following the renovation of a house in the [[Museum of Salt Making, Sečovlje|Sečovlje saltpans]]; in the following years other houses in this location were renovated and the number of the saltpans was increased. The museum also manages the [[Tartini Memorial Collection, Piran|Tartini Memorial Room]], housed in the Piran birthplace of composer and violinist [[Giuseppe Tartini]]. Another location was established in 2011 in the former Monfort salt storehouse in Portorož, it houses the collection of traditional shipbuilding and the development of water sports.
+In 1979, as the result of cooperation with Slovenia's only shipping company Splošna plovba Piran (Portorož), a branch maritime collection was installed in the villa of St Mark in Portorož, now temporarily closed. Two years later in 1981 [[Tona’s House - St Peter's Ethnological Collection|Tona's House]], an old Istrian dwelling in the village of St Peter on the Dragonja, was renovated and opened as an ethnological collection. A third branch museum collection was opened in 1991 following the renovation of a house in the [[Museum of Salt Making, Sečovlje|Sečovlje saltpans]]; in the following years other houses in this location were renovated and the number of the saltpans was increased. The museum also manages the [[Tartini Memorial Collection, Piran|Tartini Memorial Room]], housed in the Piran birthplace of composer and violinist [[Giuseppe Tartini]].
+Another location was established in 2011 in the former Monfort salt storehouse in Portorož, it houses the collection of traditional shipbuilding and the development of water sports.
 {{image|Monfort Salt Warehouses Portoroz 2012.jpg}}