Pokrajinski muzej Celje

The Provincial Museum of Celje is a cultural institution that records, collects, protects, researches and presents the cultural heritage of Celje and the Celje region for time periods from prehistory to the First World War.

In the second half of the 19th century, awareness of the importance of cultural heritage for the image of the city of Celje grew. Conscious individuals wanted to prevent the outflow of many, especially archaeological exhibits, into the Joanneum of Graz, the central cultural institution in what was then Styria. On May 1, 1882, the City Museum of Celje was opened in Celje, which until 1946 operated under the auspices of the Celje Museum Association.

In addition to the lapidary with ancient archaeological finds, the museum also had a natural history department and a historical section, divided into three subdivisions with exhibits from the pre-Roman period, the Roman period and the period from the Middle and New Ages. The third division with a collection of contemporaneous industrial products was completely modern. The first guide to the collections of the City Museum of Celje was published in 1889. The First World War and the transition from the Habsburg Monarchy to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) temporarily stopped the museum's work. The restored collections were opened to the public in 1925. The period between the two wars was marked by the archaeological finds of Srečko Brodar from Potočka zialka, which were largely destroyed during a bomb attack during the Second World War.

In 1946, the City Museum of Celje became a professional institution. The museum was transferred to the Old County. Professionally trained staff and new exhibition spaces made it possible for the City Museum to grow into a complex regional museum institution and in 1966 it was justified to rename itself the Provincial Museum of Celje.

In 1963, the Museum of the Revolution of Celje (today the Museum of Recent History of Celje) became independent from the department of the National Liberation Front, which operated under the auspices of the City Museum of Celje. The archival material, which was also kept within the museum, was transferred to the Historical Archive of Celje, founded in 1957. 130 years of the museum's existence in Celje, the anniversary that our museum celebrated in 2012 marks, apart from short periods of stagnation, continuous growth and progression. In this year, III was completed. phase of the renovation of the Duke's Palace, where the museum has two new permanent installations: in situ Archaeological Exhibition Center Celeia - Mesto pod mestom and the Countess of Celjski exhibition. Today, the Provincial Museum of Celje can offer the visitor a comprehensive insight into the cultural heritage of the Celje region on more than 3,000 m² of exhibition area and at 10 locations outside of Celje.