Technical Museum of Slovenia
The Technical museum of Slovenia is located in the castle Bistra near Vrhnika.
The Carthusian monastery Bistra was founded in the middle of 13th century by the Carinthian duke Bernard Spanheim and completed by his son Ulrik in 1260. The monastery was supported also by the counts of Celje and it reached its peak in 14th century. Further development was hindered by the invasions of the Turks, fires and earthquakes. The ideas of the reformation found here the fertile ground. The final blow to the institution was struck by the enlightened absolutist Joseph II who dismissed the monastery in 1782. Its wealth was taken over by the governmental religion fund.
After the French occupation the building was used for the district authorities including the court for the adjoining communities. In the year 1826 the entire property was bought by a merchant and factory owner Franc Galle. He reconstructed the building completely and turned it into a chateau by removing the last remains of the monastery. The estate comprising more than 1200 ha of land, four wood saws, a mill and a hunting hut remained in the possession of the Galle family until the year 1945 when it was declared the national possession and was managed by the Ministry for Forestry. In 1947 some rooms were assigned to the cabinet collection of the Forestry Institute of Ljubljana. Soon afterwards the Technical museum, founded in 1951, took over the castle that has remained under its administration to these days.
The success of the technical and industrial exhibitions in Europe in the 2nd part of the 18th century echoed in the Carniola in the beginning of 19th century while the preparations for founding of the first country museum were in course. The idea to include into the exhibition also some agricultural tools and industrial machines was promoted but not realised due to the lack of appropriate location. The same question was posed again in the seventies during the construction of the Carniola County Museum. The realisation came true only after the Second World War when a new generation of technicians, engineers and historians educated on the Ljubljana University has evolved. A decree about the founding of the Technical Museum in Slovenia was issued in the Official Gazette in 1951. The Bistra castle where first of all forest, wood and hunting objects were collected was bestowed to the Technical museum. Today this is the main complex technical museum, complemented by the collections in Bogensperk, Bohinjska Bistrica and Skofja Loka.
The village of Bistra comprising some houses and the Bistra castle is situated 22 km south-west from Ljubljana on the boundary between the Marsh of Ljubljana and the Karst hills. It can be reached by the road from Ljubljana to Vrhnika (18 km) plus 4 km by the road to Borovnica.
From the architectural point of wiew the oldest and most important are the remains of the tracts around the little cross corridor a baroque crossribbon vaulted arched gateway from mid fifteenth century. Today three wings are preserved the only one missing is the northern wing that has been included into an enlarged three-nave church and destroyed with it in 1808. At the entrance there is a baroque chapel with frescoes by a famous baroque painter Anton Cebej showing scenes from the life of St. Joseph.
The castle is situated in a park planted with ornamental shrubbery and trees. There is also a fish-pond, a field grown with marshland vegetation and a fine forest with shooting-lodges. Besides the main building there are the saw-mill, a smiths workshop, a calendar, a fulling mill a pavilion, a hall for periodic exhibitions, a restaurant, a power station and a watch tower. The surrounding country attracts hunters and anglers. It is rich in historical monuments such as St. Joseph's and the church of Zalostna gora, the Losko castle and the Dol granary. In close vicinity there are also several others places of interest such as the cave Pekel, the source of the Ljubljanica river at Mocilnik and the birth house of a great Slovene writer Ivan Cankar in Vrhnika.
COLLECTIONS
Last update: 10.9.1996
Orest Jarh