The newly opened Slovenian Language and Book Museum also enriched by our knowledge
Located at Štanjel Castle, the new Slovenian Language and Book Museum opened on 18 June 2025. It is an extremely important national asset and a new living hub for all those who are connected by language and books. The Škrateljc Institute developed the concept for the museum, while the Fran Ramovš Institute of the Slovenian Language oversaw the installation. The project has brought together leading institutions in the fields of language and books, such as the Slovenian School Museum, the National and University Library, and others.
The inauguration ceremony was also attended by the Slovenian president, Nataša Pirc Musar, and the minister for culture, Asta Vrečko. On Thursday, 19 June 2025, the first study tour of the new museum took place, featuring a presentation of the expert and educational content as well as the pedagogical programmes.
The participating institutions contributed indispensable knowledge and creativity to the museum’s content, which will inspire visitors to develop a deeper love for language and books, encouraging them to further explore, read, create and preserve our written heritage.
From the Slovenian School Museum, Anton Arko, a museum consultant, and Matic Intihar, a curator documentalist, contributed the content and selection of objects, and Polona Koželj, a senior librarian and the person responsible for supporting vulnerable groups, contributed to the presentation of the education of blind and deaf children. The replica of the classroom was created by the museum’s external collaborator, Marjan Javoršek.
WHAT HAS THE SLOVENIAN SCHOOL MUSEUM CONTRIBUTED?
The school section of the Slovenian Language and Book Museum showcases the primers that have been used in Slovenia throughout history. Representative examples illustrate the various pressures that Slovenian schools and language have faced, particularly in the 20th century, but also earlier. It shows the struggle against Germanisation during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, against the introduction of Serbian in the Kingdom of SHS and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, against fascism in Primorska after the World War I, and against fascism, Nazism and Hungarian nationalism during World War II.
The highlight is a replica of a village school classroom from Primorska, showing the suffering of Slovenian children under fascist rule. The ideological influences are also presented through two primary school notebooks and an excerpt from a school chronicle in Kobljeglava.
The curators Anton Arko and Matic Intihar at the school section of the Slovenian Language and Book Museum.
The exhibition is complemented by photographs of school buildings from different periods and locations around Slovenia, offering insights into the evolution of the educational system. The display includes a school bench, a large abacus and writing implements used throughout history.
Teaching aids for blind and deaf children are also on display, and the accompanying texts present the education of vulnerable groups as an important part of the development of Slovenian education. They also pay tribute to the dedicated educators who broke new ground in educating blind and deaf children.
ABOUT THE SLOVENIAN LANGUAGE AND BOOK MUSEUM
Conceived to be dynamic and interactive, the Slovenian Language and Book Museum allows visitors to hear, test, feel and taste the language. It is designed as an interactive classroom, a thinking gallery and a place of inspiration for all generations.
You can talk to Primož Trubar’s avatar and ask him all kinds of questions about the Slovenian standard language and the 16th century. There are facsimiles of all the most important Slovenian books, and a presentation on the history of books. You can also learn about the history of newspapers, which has been contributed by the Museum of Press.
