How Many Museums are there in Slovenia?

Many people consider museums boring. However, this is a biased approach because they evolve like music or any other kind of art. Of course, there are classical museums that can be interesting for historians or other academicians. On the other hand, some of the alternative museums can really impress.

In Slovenia, there are approximately 67 museums officially recognized by the Slovenian Museums Association, and the same number of other museums, which still haven’t been included in their list in the official Guide to Slovenian Museums and Galleries.

Here we will consider two types of museums: the classical ones and alternative museums. Generally speaking, in the first category, you can find museums and exhibitions related to such topics as history, culture, anthropology, classic art, and many others. On the other hand, alternative museums give a different, interactive perspective of studying things. There, you can touch, feel, taste, and feel the things by tips of your fingers in a metaphorical context.

Classical Museums

The National Museum of Slovenia and the Slovenian Museum of Natural History

These two are located in the one building, in the center of Ljubljana, near Tivoli City Park, the Parliament, and the Opera House. That’s why we consider them under one heading. Moreover, they are the oldest scientific and natural institutions in the country.

The first one is divided into an Archaeological Department, a Numismatic Cabinet, a Department of Prints and Drawings, and a Department of History and the Applied Arts. Therefore, you can find here pieces of art as well as a big collection of coins and banknotes. Some of the exhibits date back from ancient times. Not a surprise because the museum was established when there was no Slovenia but only Carniola Province. Thereby, the museum gathered a decent collection since that time.

In its turn, the Slovenian Museum of Natural History shows great biodiversity of the country. Its symbol since 1938 is an almost complete skeleton of the woolly mammoth, found in Nevlje settlement. Also, it includes such exhibits as Sigmund Zois’s mineral collection, collection of mollusk shells with about 5,000 specimens, bird, reptile, fish, mammal, and skeleton collections, and the significant one, the 210-million-year-old 84-centimeter long fish skeleton found in the Triglav Mount.

Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana plus Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova

Its abbreviation is MG+MSUM, but it is also known as The Moderna galerija. The museum is located in Ljubljana as well, and it is the biggest national institution for modern and contemporary art. This includes a photo archive, a library, an extensive Modern art archive, a translation, and publications department.

The freshest collection is the new media collection, where you can find video works, films, moving images, installations, and Internet projects. It shows the development of media art in Slovenia and presents a varied picture in terms of generation, expression, and technological approach.

There is a separate big article about it on our website, so we invite you to check it here.

Slovene Ethnographic Museum

SEM is unofficially called “a museum about people, from people, and for people”. Slovene Ethnographic Museum includes traditional and urban, mass, and pop culture from all over Slovenia and even diaspora in other countries. Its origin dates back to ethnographic collections of the Provincial Museum of Carniola.

Here, you can find 3000 items of every day and holiday life and more than 40,000 objects different objects, including exhibitions about the human being, on gingerbread and candle-making, the oldest collection of African objects of the Nilotic people in Europe, online collections of objects, photography, and filmography, and several collections at eleven curatorships related to any field of human life.

Ptuj Castle

This one is for lovers of everything classical. The museum’s exhibitions overtake the periods from the 16^th to the 19^th century, and the castle itself was built in the 12^th century, whereas the first fortifications appeared even earlier, in the 9^th century.

Here you will find art, furniture, costumes, everyday objects, and even the old collection of musical instruments!

Kobarid Museum

This town with the same name is considered as the place of remembrance of World War I. Here it happened the warfare scene of the biggest mountain battle in human history. Therefore, you can visit the Kobarid Museum in order to dig deep inside world history as well as the Slovenian one experiencing the place by the tips of your fingers. You can find antique weaponry, armors, and names more connected with the battles of World War I.

In the town, don’t forget also to find the Napoleon Bridge, the Kozjak Waterfall, its pool, and the most interesting part, the Cheese-Making Museum, that is not big but must visit for lovers of this tasty dairy product.

Alternative Museums

Magical World of Shells Museum

It is located in Piran, one of the most visited sea towns in Slovenia. That’s why the theme of the museum is marine. The biggest clams in the world, pearls, sea urchins, crabs, sea stars, and much more, will be available here to observe and even to touch. Exhibitions are highly interactive, therefore it was constructed in a way for easy promotion of environmental awareness to people.

Moreover, it includes an incredible collection of 4,000 species of rare and unusual mollusks. If you plan to visit Slovenian Riviera and you are highly interested in marine biology, this one is must-check.

House of Illusions

Ljubljana itself is a magical city. However, if you are not enough of wonders, the House of Illusions is for you. It is full of interesting optical illusions, puzzles, and so on. There is even a “vortex tunnel” here. You can find more than 40 exhibits in the House of Illusions for you to explore.

The perfect place for the people who came travelling to Slovenia with children, or for people who didn’t get rid of their inner child. In general, this one is for everyone.

Old Vine House

The pearl of the Maribor city. Have you seen the oldest wine in the world? Here you will do. Some of the bottles still have fruits inside, in spite of the fact that it is 400 years old, the certificate in the Guinness Book of Records will prove this! The museum is the symbol of Slovenia’s rich viticulture.

And of course, there are wine tastings here. The most important thing, maybe, but before, a guide can tell you more about the wine here, so you’ll enjoy an intimate and delicious taste as an expert.

Railway Museum and Museum of Puppetry

Those are thematic museums located in Ljubljana. If you even were interested in such spheres as puppet theater or railway transportation, you definitely should visit the appropriate one. They are full of interesting exhibitions. Moreover, all of them are translated into English.

Beekeping Museum in Radovljica

Did you know that Slovenia has a beekeeping culture as well? Here, you will find interesting things, artwork, and history of beekeeping. Also, don’t forget to buy the small jar of well-known Slovenian honey.

Franja Partisan Hospital

This one is hard to determine for either classical or alternative categories. On the one side, it is about war, thus about history. On the other one, it tells this story giving a distinct environment of that time.

The hospital was a secret World War II hospital at the Dolenji Novaki village near the Cerkno town in western Slovenia. Today Franja Hospital is a museum. It has been protected as a cultural monument of national significance and now it is one of the candidates to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The hospital consists of 16 buildings, each with its own feelings of desperation and hope. In 2007, it was flooded, very unfortunately. In 2010, it was reconstructed and completely rebuilt, but the environment was saved and still working as a time machine to World War I.

A Museum for Every Taste

Slovenia is the place where you can find typical museums as well as unique ones. Therefore, visiting those places can be really interesting if to forget about the typical stereotypes. Such museums as Old Vine House, House of Illusions, or Shell Museum can open Slovenia from one more side for you.

On the other hand, Slovenians like to visit classical museums, especially during national holidays, when the entrance to those ones is opened for everybody. They represent their national identity they were striving to obtain for centuries.

Moreover, now when every European citizen can visit Slovenia, this is the perfect way of absorbing the culture. An ideal way, of course, would be to live here for some period of time or visit some cultural festival. However, not everybody can get such a possibility because of work, family, or other life situations for example.   

You need to try at least one of them, and after you will not stop visiting Slovenian museums. 

The Full List of Museums

Here, we will provide a full list of museums and their websites for you to be acquainted with all of them and choose the most suitable one.

Officially Recognized by Slovenian Museums Association

Other Museums and Galleries