User:SasaB1665/Regional Museum Maribor

Regional Museum Maribor is a museum that deals with the collection, protection, preservation, research, exhibition and popularization of movable cultural heritage in the field of archeology, ethnology and broader cultural history in the wider Maribor region. With its collections in 1938, the museum settled in the Maribor city castle in the city center.

Castle History
The beginnings of its construction date back to 1476. The 16th century Renaissance bastion is today the main part of the castle. Numerous alterations changed it into aristocratic residential architecture: in the period 1655-1675 a Loretta chapel was added, and in 1680 a ceremonial hall was arranged. Around 1750 one of the most beautiful staircases in Slovenia was added. With the addition of the bastion, additional living spaces were acquired, and by covering the defensive platform in front of the castle, a covered promenade was created. The noble families Khisl, Rosenberg and Brandis-Trautmannsdorf transformed the castle into its present appearance. In the 19th century, when it passed from a noble to a bourgeois estate, it lost a lot - with the arrangement of Grajska Street, the castle complex was cut down and the western half was destroyed.

Museum history
The museum was founded in 1903. Its collections at the time included three special sets. The oldest collection is the one of sacred art, kept by the Škofijski muzej, founded in 1896. The collection of the Museum Society, founded in 1902, was opened to the public a year later. The Historical Society for Slovenian Styria (Zgodovinsko društvo za Slovensko Štajersko), founded in 1903, opened its collections to the public in 1909 on the premises of the Narodni dom.

Beginnings
The exhibition shows the beginnings of the museum in Maribor and its development into the building of the Regional Museum Maribor from 1896 to 2003. It is in located in the hall, decorated by the preserved frescoes by Matej Sternen. The artist painted them in 1940 for the Castle Cellar restaurant. A piece of the first museum exhibition from 1903 has been reconstructed, and the museum collections are presented as the foundation of the museum's work. The heritage collected in them displays the museum as a database of the cultural and historical identity of space and the individual. The involvement of the Maribor Museum in the general development of museums is shown on the timeline, where selected events in the history of the museum are recorded.

First touch
The first touch archeological exhibition includes around 1000 selected objects from various materials, testifying to the density of settlement and living culture, way of life and burial customs, material and spiritual culture, and social and economic conditions from the Late Stone Age to the Early Middle Ages. Models of reconstructed dwellings offer an insight into the way of life through different periods. The findings picture the events from wider Slovenian and world space.

Between splendor and misery
Exhibition of a series of individual structures and phenomena from the period from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 18th century in Maribor and its surroundings (trade, defense, religion, plague, fires, city government, crafts). Apart from the museums, they are explained by models, and the ambience of the chimney and inn have been reconstructed. The exhibition is on the ground floor of the bastion, the city’s defensive tower from the mid-16th century, built under the direction of architect Domenico dell’Alli. The anti-Turkish fortification in Styria and Slavonia under the leadership of the said architect is shown, as well as older weapons from the museum collection.

Ars pharmaceutica – the art of pharmacy
The exhibition shows a reconstruction of a historic pharmacy from the end of the 19th century. The sales area of ​​the pharmacy (office) with original pharmacy cabinets and stalls and a prescription table, a pharmacy laboratory with equipment for the production of medicines and materials (warehouse for raw materials) are presented. Objects from the former monastery pharmacies in Olimje and Slovenska Bistrica and from the former Styrian city pharmacies are on display. A pharmacy book from the end of the 16th century is also on display. On display, smell and touch are herbal drugs.

Collections
Archaeological collection Findings from the Podravje region were obtained through excavations, gifts and purchases. The collection includes stone tools and pottery from the Late Stone Age and Copper Ages. From the Bronze Age are bronze objects and pottery from depots, cremation graves and settlements. From the Old Iron Age there is pottery from Poštela and the associated cemeteries, and from the Late Iron Age Celtic weapons and pottery. From the Roman villas of rustic, individual buildings and mounds are iron and bronze objects, pottery and glass vessels and stone monuments. From late antiquity there are vessels and iron tools, and from the early Middle Ages there are Old Slavic pottery, tools and jewelry.

Ethnological collection The ethnological collection includes material from two cultural areas: the Alpine region with Carinthia, Pohorje and Kozjak, and the Pannonian region with the Drava plain, Slovenske gorice, Haloze and Prekmurje. The oldest objects (wooden chests, kitchen cabinets, fireplace equipment) date from the 18th century and illustrate the rural living culture, complemented by the characteristic wall decoration (paintings on glass). The image of economic activities is shown by agricultural, forestry and carpentry tools and accessories. Among the younger household appliances, the Miele wooden washing machine from the 1920s and the refrigerator from the 1930s stand out.

Weapons collection The collection of weapons is one of the largest collections in Slovenia. It covers weapons and equipment from the late Middle Ages to the mid-20th century. Among the oldest objects in the collection are a Frankish sword from the 13th to the 14th century and battle hammers with moving heads from the 16th century. A special feature is the sword breaker from 1620. In addition to cold and older firearms, the collection also includes artfully made hunting rifles from the 18th and 19th centuries, military rifles of the former Austro-Hungarian army and other armies from the First World War.

Oven collection The collection includes pottery kilns and ovens that originate from the wider area of ​​the former province of Styria. The oldest are from the 15th and first half of the 16th century. They were made by casting into a mold. On them appears the motif of a soldier with a halberd, the so-called Landsknecht, and a knight on horseback. Among the stoves, due to their rich relief decoration, the greatest attention is drawn to the stove from the 17th century, which originates from Rače.

A collection of tin soldiers The collection is full of lead soldiers and flat tin soldiers, who with their clothes and weapons depict the time from antiquity to the end of the 19th century. The motifs cover simple shapes of people and animals as well as intricate scenes illustrating military battles and other important historical events.

A collection of postcards Collection includes postcards from the end of the 19th century (made mostly in the lithography technique) and from the first half of the 20th century (mostly color postcards). The motifs on them show mainly Maribor and its surroundings.

Numismatic collection The collection includes the oldest coins from the Roman period. The medieval ones originate from the mints in Kamnik, Slovenj Gradec, Kostanjevica, Velikovac, Breže, Graz, Ptuj and Vienna. From the new century are coins of the Habsburg Imperial House, and from the 20th century coins from the wider European area, South America, Asia and the Middle East.

A collection of flags The collection consists of flags and pennants from the mid-19th to the first half of the 20th century. Among the most interesting are the flags of the bourgeois guard from 1791, the Maribor National Guard from 1848, the flag of the Maribor Gymnastics Association from 1887 and the flag of the Schlaraffia Association from Maribor.

Photo collection The collection consists of family albums with photographs from the end of the 19th century, portraits of soldiers from the first third of the 20th century and photographs of social events.

Furniture collection The collection consists of high-quality objects from the Gothic to Art Nouveau periods. The majority of the material is from the second half of the 17th to the end of the 19th century. Of the genres, the most represented in the collection are chests, chests of drawers, tabernacle cabinets, secretaries and various seating furniture. Most of the collected furniture was used in Styrian, Carinthian and Prekmurje castles, mansions, burgher houses and peasant homes.

Collection of fine arts The collection consists of sculptural and painting works and graphics from the period from the 14th to the 20th century. Among the sculptures, the works of the Maribor Baroque sculptor Jožef Straub, tombstones and coats of arms stand out. Among the sacral paintings, the most important are the altarpieces of the Styrian painter Hans A. Weissenkircher, and among the profane works of European painters of the 17th and 18th centuries (M. Bechtl, F. Snyders, J. Fyt, P. van Kessel, A. Mezzadri, JH Schönfeld, I. Flurer, T. Porta). Among the graphics (17th to 20th century), views of Maribor and some other places in Styria have an important place.

Craft collection The collection testifies to the craft activity in the area of ​​Maribor and in the wider region. Foreign products are also represented. Among the metal ones are collected objects made of iron, bronze, brass, tin, copper and precious metals from the 16th to the 20th century. Ceramic products include objects made of fired clay, white-ring ceramics, faience, porcelain and stoneware from the 14th to the 20th century. The most important is the collection of Pohorje glass, which testifies to glassmaking on Pohorje, especially in the 19th and early 20th century.

Watch and clock collection The collection of watches includes products of domestic and foreign watch workshops from the 17th to the 20th century. Sundials, tall standing astronomical clocks with complex mechanisms, smaller standing tabernacle clocks with wooden housings and metal accessories are represented. Empirical standing clocks have rich figural, animal and plant decoration. The collection also features Biedermeier clocks in the form of paintings, baskets and framed clocks. Historically designed clocks show Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque forms. The collection also includes iron and wooden wall clocks on weights, pocket clocks and alarm clocks.

Lamps collection The collection of lamps (17th to 20th century) includes chandeliers made of glass, wood and metal, which show different stylistic features. Wrought iron candlesticks, lanterns, hazelnuts, hazelnuts, oil lamps and greaves are simple blacksmith products. The characteristics of individual styles are shown mainly by multi-frame candlesticks. Oil lamps, Argand lamps and kerosene lamps are also represented. Among the lights for sacral use, altar candlesticks and eternal lights predominate. The collection also includes various accessories: wick shears, candle shades, firecracker nutrients and lighters.

Collection of musical instruments The collection of musical instruments (18th to 20th century) consists of musical instruments related to the city's musical life (drums of the Maribor City Guard), wind instruments, brass instruments, strings, trumpets and keyboard instruments. Among the items with makers' badges, most are musical instruments of Viennese and Graz masters, and some were made in Linz, Germany and France. The only work of the local master is the treble flute of Michael Pöhm from Ptuj from around 1800. The collection also includes a piano with hammers from 1792 and a portable organ from the castle's Loretan chapel.

Pharmacy collection The pharmacy collection includes material from the 17th to the 20th century. It consists of the equipment of pharmacy sales premises (prescription table, pharmacy cabinets, glass, wooden, ceramic and metal pharmacy stands) and laboratory equipment (grinders, mortars, scales, weights, melters). Most of the items come from former pharmacies in Maribor and other pharmacies in Styria, Prekmurje and Koroška. The oldest objects were in use in the monastery pharmacies in Olimje (wooden vessels with inscriptions) and in Slovenska Bistrica (mortar from 1614).

A collection of frames The collection consists of objects that are closely related to painting and living culture. From the 17th century, the collection includes a frame of a house altar, which shows the characteristics of contemporary altar architecture. The 18th-century frames reflect Baroque diversity through changing ornaments, varied outlines and various profiles. The most represented are the frames from the 19th century, which show the characteristics of empiricism, Biedermeier and historicism. The late Renaissance mirror from the 17th century stands out among the mirrors, and the collection also includes wall, toilet, standing and mirrors included in the furniture.

Fashion collection The fashion collection is the central collection of its kind in the country. The collection includes aristocratic and bourgeois fashion clothing from the 17th century onwards. It has a diverse and rich selection of women's, men's and children's clothing, footwear, headwear, a variety of fashion accessories, fashion graphics and fashion newspapers.

Collection of uniforms The collection includes military and civilian uniforms. Among the military are uniforms and equipment of the Austrian, German and French armies before 1918, uniforms from the First and Second World Wars and uniforms from the First and Second Yugoslavia. Of the civilians, the collection includes the uniforms of the bureaucracy, fire brigade, falconry, railways, customs, post office, police, aviation and police.

Collection of liturgical textiles The collection of liturgical textiles covers material from the period from the middle of the 17th century to the middle of the 20th century. It consists of liturgical vestments (mass mantles), mass sets (mass mantles with paraments) and individual parts of paraments (stoles, pala, bursa, maniplji, velumi). The collection also includes mass pillows, ciborium cloaks, tablecloths and various fabric patterns.

A collection of textiles for various purposes The collection includes patterns of textiles, embroidery, lace, tapestries, tapestries, bedspreads, rugs, tablecloths and napkins, curtains, pillowcases, decorative trim, handkerchiefs, bell belts and tea heaters. The material belongs to the 19th and 20th centuries.

Conservation and restoration
In the workshops, with the help of various investigations, procedures and materials, they preserve and restore mainly wooden (furniture, handicrafts and ethnological objects), metal and ceramic materials (archaeological, ethnological and handicrafts, historical weapons, numismatics), and occasionally objects from other materials (stone, glass, porcelain, leather, textiles). With the methods of preventive conservation, they regulate the microclimate in depot and exhibition spaces.

Library
The library of the Maribor Regional Museum is a specialized library that supports the basic activity of the museum by collecting, editing and storing library material. The book collection includes domestic and foreign monographic and periodical publications in the field of archeology, ethnology, anthropology, history, art history, museology, conservation and restoration, as well as publications related to individual museum collections.

Pedagogical and andragogical work
In addition to lessons and guided tours of schoolchildren trough exhibitions, the museum also conducts independent pedagogical programs: museum subscriptions, summer programme in castle, great creations of small masters and a small symposium. Adults are guided by exhibitions and programs of the museum club, museum evenings and revived objects.

Resources

 * Jože Curk: Maribor castle (Zbirka Osvetljena dediščina; št. 3), Regional Museum Maribor, 2007.
 * Fran Kovačič: The origin and development of the Maribor Museum, Journal of History and Ethnography, 23, 1928.
 * Janko Glazer: Franjo Baš, Journal of History and Ethnography, 34, n. v. 5, 1969.
 * Drago Oman: 60 years of museum collections in Maribor City Castle, Regional Museum Maribor, 1998.
 * (S)toletno (s)poročilo. Guide to selected material from the collections of the Regional Museum Maribor, Regional Museum Maribor, 2003.
 * Irena Porekar Kacafura: The past of the present-the present of the future. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the conservation and restoration activity in the Maribor Provincial Museum, the Regional Museum Maribor, 2009.