Best of Ljubljana Museums

more than a year ago

National Museum of Slovenia

Ljubljana City Gallary

National Museum of Slovenia

Museum of Puppetry

Slovene Ethnographic Museum

Bankarium

Museum of Modern Art

Whilst Ljubljana's museums and galleries are likely not the top reason for most visitors coming to the city, the breadth and scope of what's on offer is more than enough to keep you busy for days on end. Ljubljana boasts an abundance of exceedingly high-quality, expertly curated museums that other European cities of its size would find very difficult to match. Of course, it helps that Slovenia has a rich tradition of talented artists to draw from, and an even richer and longer historical legacy of the various empires and ages from which countless priceless items have survived and found their way into local collections. The museums listed below showcase The Best of Ljubljana Museums, but if that's not enough to satiate your cultural appetite, you can check out our full guide to Ljubljana's museums and galleries here.

City Museum of Ljubljana

The City Museum of Ljubljana is located in a true architectural monument. The permanent exhibition brings a chronological overview of the Ljubljana basin area and gives visitors the opportunity to learn about the town's history. It draws attention to the city's important geostrategic position and to the extraordinary events in the history of the area. Read more...

Museum of Modern Art

This half of the state-owned Moderna Galerija focuses predominantly on showcasing a diverse and equally inspiring collection of Slovene and international art dating more or less from the ‘modern’ period of the 20th century. Not just focusing on painting, the collection holds works spanning many genres including photography, sculpture and graphic art. Read more...

Slovene Ethnographic Museum

The Slovene Ethnographic Museum (SEM), a museum 'about people, for people', prides itself as being the link between the past and the present, between our own and other cultures, between nature and civilisation. Through two permanent exhibitions, diverse annual temporary exhibitions and other events, SEM presents and reports on the traditional culture of Slovenia and other cultures of the world in creative and imaginative ways. Read more...

International Centre of Graphic Arts

Located inside the gorgeous 17th-century Tivoli Mansion, this must-see attraction for anyone with even a passing interest in the visual arts contains a staggering 4,000 prints and the same number again of art books and other printed ephemera, mostly dating from the second half of the 20th century onwards and including the work of many of the great masters of European graphic art, all of which can be ordered for viewing in the centre’s Study Room. Read more...

Museum of Contemporary Art

This half of the state-owned Moderna Galerija follows on from the work on show at its sister Museum of Modern Art and concentrates on work from all genres produced both in Slovenia and abroad from the 1960s onwards. Among the many things on display, we recommend the permanent collection devoted to Eastern Europe's post-war avant-garde movement. Read more...

National Museum of Slovenia

Found lurking inside another of the city’s fine, late 19th-century neo-Renaissance buildings complete with gorgeous painted ceilings and elaborate sculptures on the stairs, founded way back in 1821 this is the oldest museum in country. The museum’s collection now spreads to another location in Ljubljana’s museum quarter in Metelkova. Read more...

National Museum of Contemporary History

If you needed a reason to visit Tivoli Park, it's here. This fascinating museum inside a wonderful 18th-century mansion presents the history of Slovenia from the period around the start of the First World War until the Slovenian Presidency of the EU in 2008. The building alone is worth seeing, being a marvellous combination of original Baroque and the interesting modernist work of the Slovenian architect Jurij Kobe who extension to the museum dates from 1991. Read more...

Museum of Puppetry

Slovenia has a rich history of puppetry dating back to the 1920s and beyond when the grandfather of Slovene Puppetry Milan Klemenčič opened his Tiny String Puppet Theatre. Almost 100 years later the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre is still going strong and continues to stage internationally acclaimed puppet performances. Read more...

Museum of Architecture & Design

Located in Fužine Castle in the far east of the city, the Museum of Architecture and Design is the main Slovene institution operating in the fields of architecture, urban planning, industrial and graphic design and photography. The musuem collects and archives work from these areas, which can then be used for both educational purposes and public exhibition, and also acts as a museum and architectural and design centre whose mission is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and knowledge and the establishment of urban, architectural and design dialogue. Read more...

Bankarium

Slovenia’s banking heritage is celebrated here and focusses on banking from 1820 through to present day. The museum was created by NLB and the presentation walks visitors through 200 years of history, showing the different currencies and banking practises that have been used, as well as introducing some of the key figures from the Slovenian banking world. Read more...