Author: mnzc

SUMMER MUSEUM NIGHT at the Museum of Recent History Celje
Saturday, 21 June 2025, 18:00–24:00

Free admission to permanent and temporary exhibitions

• 18:00–22:00 – Reviving the Street of Craftsmen and the Museum Pharmacy with museum demonstrators and volunteers at the permanent exhibition Living in Celje

• 21:00–22:00 – discover the exhibition “The War Is Over, Long Live Peace! Celje 1945” with the author, Dr. Tonček Kregar

• 18:00–22:00 – Short guided group tours of the Photo house Pelikan with a museum curator

• 18:00–20:00 – Viewing of the exhibition “Echo of Victory: Photos of the Masses at the End of World War II” with the author Katarina Jurjavčič / MNSZS / Gallery Božena in the Photo house Pelikan

Please note: Due to an exceptional security situation at the Celje prison Stari pisker, the memorial courtyard will not be accessible during this year’s Summer Museum Night.

According to the selection by the Valvasor Award Committee, the Museum of Recent History Celje — with special emphasis on the museum complex of the Photo house Pelikan, which “stands out not only on a national but also on a European level due to the exceptional preservation and presentation of cultural heritage” — has been awarded the title of Slovenian Museum of the Year 2025.

We would like to inform you that the Museum of Recent History Celje will be CLOSED on Sunday, 1 June 2025, due to urgent maintenance work.

On Tuesday, 3 June 2025, the museum will reopen according to regular opening hours.

Thank you for your understanding!

Temporary photographic exhibition of the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia entitled Echoes of Victory: Photographs of Crowds at the End of World War II, created in collaboration with the Slovene Ethnographic Museum and the Archdiocesan Archives of Ljubljana, sheds light on the last days of World War II and the echoes of victory in May 1945 on Slovene ethnic territory. Franc Cerar, Karol Holynski, Jože Kološa, Marjan Pfeifer, Slavko Smolej, Rudi Stopar, Edi Šelhaus, Nande Vidmar, Rudi Vavpotič were photographers who accompanied the end of the war and whose photographs are mostly kept in the museum’s Foto Slovenija collection. The motifs depicting the arrival of the Partisan army in various cities show an exceptional mass presence. Mass participation was achieved at numerous rallies that took place day after day in May 1945. The fallen fighters of the Partisan army experienced a dignified and mass farewell with a mourning ceremony in the Cathedral in Ljubljana and a funeral in Žale. The end of the war was greeted by the majority of the population with expressions of joy, happiness and hope for a better future, with great confidence in the new political authorities, which was expressed in countless textual and pictorial banners at post-war events. After the mass withdrawal of various military units after the end of the war, piles of discarded weapons and equipment remained on Slovene territory. The last motif in the exhibition is a photograph of a large number of rifles that remained without an owner. The motif thus symbolically concludes the photographic narrative of a difficult, multi-year period for the Slovene nation, which caused much suffering and many emotional wounds.  

Exhibition is due 3 September 2025.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a happy and peaceful new year!

Museum of Recent History Celje

You are invited to the opening of the photographic exhibition by Andreja Ravnak, “Waves: The Fabric of Agrarian Landscapes”, on 10 December 2024 in the  Gallery Božena of the Photo House Pelikan.

The exhibition features photographic abstractions of the undulating fields of Tuscany and South Moravia, which at times resemble vibrantly woven flying carpets or silk draped over the curves of a body. The artist explores the aesthetics of intertwining the organic curves of bare landscapes with the textures and geometries of mechanically cultivated land.

The exhibition will be on display until 8 February 2025.

From October 2024 to the end of February 2025, the Museum of Recent History Celje is hosting the exhibition “The Communicative Power of Posters” in its gallery spaces.

As a part of the series FROM THE COLLECTION, this exhibition showcases a selection of materials from the museum’s Poster Collection, which includes more than 6,800 posters dating back to 1941.