Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
these structures seem, imagine if the builders had followed the original plans—the towers
would be twice as tall as they are now, and connected by a bridge, representing the gateway
toLjubljana.ThesebuildingswereoriginallydesignedastheSlovenianparliament,butthey
were scaled back when Tito didn't approve (since it would have made Slovenia's parlia-
ment bigger than the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade). Instead, the
Slovenian Parliament
is across the square, in the strangely low-profile office building with the sculpted entryway.
The carvings are in the Socialist Realist style, celebrating the noble Slovenian people con-
forming to communist ideals for the good of the entire society. Completing the square are
a huge conference center (Cankarjev Dom, the white building behind the skyscrapers), a
shopping mall, and some public art.
• Just a block north, across the street and through the grassy park (Trg Narodni Herojev),
you'll find the...
These two museums share a single historic building facing a park behind the Parliament.
While neither collection is particularly good, they're both worth considering if you have a
special interest or if it's a rainy day.
The
National Museum
occupies the ground floor, featuring a lapidarium with carved-
stone Roman monuments and exhibits on Egyptian mummies. (Temporary exhibits are also
on this level.) Upstairs and to the right are more exhibits of the National Museum, with ar-
chaeological findings ranging from old armor and pottery to the museum's two prized pos-
sessions: a fragment of a 45,000-year-old Neanderthal flute fashioned from a cave bear's
femur, supposedly the world's oldest musical instrument; and the “figural situla,” a beauti-
fully decorated hammered-bronze bucket from the fifth century
B.C.
Embossed with scenes
of everyday Iron Age life, this object has been a gold mine of information for archaeolo-
gists.
Upstairs and to the left is the
Natural History
exhibit, featuring the flora and fauna of
Slovenia. You'll see partial skeletons of a mammoth and a cave bear, plenty of stuffed rep-
tiles,fish,andbirds,andanexhibiton“humanfish”(
Proteus anguinus
—long,skinny,pale-
pink, sightless salamanders unique to caves in this part of Europe).
Cost and Hours:
€3 for each museum, or €5 for both, some English descriptions, free
audioguide for Natural History Museum, both open daily 10:00-18:00, Thu until 20:00,
Prešernova 20, tel. 01/241-4400,
www.nms.si
and
www.pms-lj.si
.
• At the far end of the building is a glassed-in annex displaying Roman stone monuments
(free). Turning left around the museum building and walking one block, you'll see the...
