Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran

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).

Background

The museum is named after hero Sergej Mašera (1912-1941), artillery officer in the former Yugoslav army and lieutenant of warships 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, marked with the central axis, enrich the classical elements, thought the effect is reduced by unfinished north wing. A columned stone staircase shapes the inside of the palace, decorated at piano nobile with original paintings and stucco.

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 for maritime country in the common Mediterranean and European area.

Venues

In 1979, as the result of co-operation with Slovenia's only shipping company Splošna plovba Piran (Portorož), a branch maritime collection was installed in the villa of St Mark in Portorož, that is temporary 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 manages also the Tartini Memorial Room, housed in the Piran birthplace of composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini.

Street Museum Izola, cosponsored by PHARE, with the permanent collection of ship 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 revitalization 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: archaeological collection with the permanent exhibition Between Land and Sea; salt-making collection in the Museum of Salt Making, Sečovlje; ethnological fishing collection of pictures and objects dealing with sea-fishing at Izola, fishing among the Slovenes in Slovene ethnic territory from Trieste to the Timavo river; art history collection of Fr Gabriel Gruber’s (1740–1805) ship models, seamen’s votive tablets, ship figureheads; maritime history collection of early maritime history, Austrian and Austro-Hungarian period, and of Slovene mariners in 1918–1945; collection of Splošna plovba Portorož in Portorož; ethnological collection in the Tona’s House; library of 14,000 books, consists of the 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 in front of port of Piran in front of the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum has housed the museum's first renovated ship - a yacht Seagull [Galeb] (of the cutter M6 type) previously owned by world-famous ballet dancers Pia and Pino Mlakar. In 2004 Seagull won the boat-race of old-timers in Trieste.

International cooperation

It 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 the 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

Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum, Piran

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