Slovenia 2021 National museum Carniola

National museum Carniola

On 15 October 1821, the Carniolan Provincial Estates adopted the decision to found a provincial museum. Responsibility for it was assumed by the Carniolan Agricultural Society. On 8 June 1826, Emperor Franz I approved the founding of the museum, and decreed that it should be named the Provincial Museum (Landesmuseum). This was the first museum in the Slovenian lands, thereby signalling the start of Slovenia’s museum tradition.

The first museum in Slovenia received donations of objects from people of all estates and professions, from all parts of the country. The oldest acquisitions included examples of products from the Tržič ironworks, the Repežič numismatic collection, the Zois minerals collection, Hohenwart collection of mollusc shells, Baraga collection of objects from the peoples of North America, individual natural history, archaeological, historical and artistic objects, and book and archive material. The museum exhibits were on display from 1831 on at the first permanent museum exhibition in the building of the former lyceum next to the Ljubljana Cathedral. By the end of the 19th century, the museum had expanded its collection to include numerous archaeological items. The premises in the lyceum building became too small to house everything, therefore a new museum building was built in 1888 (at the present-day Muzejska ulica 1). The museum was succeeded by three others, the National Museum of Slovenia, the Natural History Museum of Slovenia and the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum.

On the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Provincial Museum for Carniola, the first museum in Slovenia, the Republic of Slovenia is issuing a commemorative coin. The inspiration for the artwork on the coin is the Vače situla, the bands of which become a graphic symbol for the layering of history. The coin presents the layers of the museum’s history in the form of the various names that the institution bore in its 200-year history.

Weight - 8.5 g.
Quality - UNC (Uncirculated)
Diameter - 25.75 mm.
Composition Bimetallic - nickel brass clad nickel center in copper-nickel ring
Circulation - 991'000 pcs.
Country of origin - Slovenia
Year of release - 2021