In 15 years in Ljubljana, I’ve visited every museum. Here are my top 5 of the best museums in Ljubljana.
Ljubljana is a small capital, but it has a lot of museums. The Slovenian capital doesn’t compete with the big cities and the most beautiful museums in Europe. You won’t find any “big museums” that can’t be missed. It does, however, have a number of small, fun and original museums, which are excellent activities if it rains (which happens quite often in Slovenia). You’ll discover some wonderful things in these museums, and in particular a part of Slovenian culture.
Planning your trip to Slovenia
If you’re only staying a few days in Slovenia, don’t put all these museums on your list of visits (apart from the first one). Instead, I recommend that you take advantage of :
- slovenia’s beautiful countryside,
- hiking in the Triglav Park,
- visit these extraordinary caves,
- go swimming in Piran,
- enjoy the Slovenian thermal baths.
All the above activities will leave you with better memories than Ljubljana’s museums.
However, if you’re staying longer or if it rains during your stay, here are the five museums in Ljubljana that excited me the most.
The Railway Museum
Ljubljana’s railway museum (Železniški muzej) is located 1.5km from the heart of the city centre. It houses around fifteen steam locomotives that are over a century old. These huge old locomotives give a singular allure to the hall in which you can admire the steam locomotives. It’s a very personal favourite and I can’t guarantee that you will enjoy this museum as much as I did.
In this museum, you climb the steps to reach the locomotive cockpit. Looking out of the window, you can imagine yourself as a steam locomotive driver in the last century.
Outside, other locomotives are on display. The huge abandoned warehouses surrounding the museum make you feel as if you’ve arrived at the end of a railway line in a small Siberian mining town, a real change of scenery that will delight photographers and Instagrammers, especially if the snow is present or the lighting is good.
In another hangar, you can discover the traffic lights and signs used during the former Yugoslavia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In the last room of the museum, you can sit on the spartan wooden benches of an old carriage or discover the signalmen’s consoles.
My personal favourite: This museum is not very well maintained and has not been renovated for a long time. It’s empty most of the time, but I think that’s exactly what I liked about it, as it fits in well with the huge black and red locomotives. You can get a 360° view of this museum here
Le musée du chemin de fer – Admission €8
Parmova 35
Right next to the museum, you’ll see Ljubljana’s new mosque
In 2020, a magnificent mosque opened its doors in Ljubljana, right next to the museum. A magnificent ensemble of white concrete, wood and metal buildings. Take a look around after your visit.
Tip : You can take some great photos here and, if you like, enjoy a cool coffee under the esplanade.
The National Gallery
Slovenian name: Narodna Galerija
This museum was renovated in 2015. It’s a classic museum of paintings (see photo). It features the usual religious paintings as well as those by Slovenian impressionists (who were exhibited at the Petit Palais in Paris in 2013). The visit to Ljubljana’s Narodna Galerija is fairly quick.
It’s a museum you need to see quickly before going for a walk in Tivoli Park, for example.
Not tobe missed in the area: Right next to the museum, don’t miss the beautiful and astonishing Orthodox church. All the details are in the article Top 10 unusual Ljubljana.
Inside the Narodna Galerija
Examples of the paintings you will see inside the museum’s galleries.
- Narodna Galerija _-Prešernova 24
- http://www.ng-slo.si
The bright café at Narodna Galerija
In winter, I love going to this large, bright and very quiet café. You can admire Francesco Robba ‘s magnificent and gigantic fountain of 3 titans, which is right next to the tables. If it’s raining or if you’re visiting during the winter, don’t forget to visit this café to recharge your batteries.
The Museum of Modern Art
Slovenian name: Moderna Galerija
Thismuseum is located almost opposite the National Gallery, at the entrance to the huge Tivoli Park.
In this museum, whose room is in fact a large rectangular hall, you’ll find the permanent collection on the left and a temporary exhibition on the right. None of the works in this museum made a particular impression on me, but it’s not a bad place to spend some time. The temporary exhibition can be a pleasant surprise (or not). It all depends on when you go.
This museum of modern art can be visited in less than an hour.
There’s anice café terrace in front of the museum in the summer where you can drink iced coffees. I love going there.
There’s another café hidden away in the museum: just past the front door, turn left and go down the stairs.
Tip: the museum is free on the first Sunday of every month.
- The Museum of Modern Art – Tomsiceva 14
- http://www.mg-lj.si/
The Ethnographic Museum
In Slovenian: Slovenski etnografski muzej
A recentmuseum located on a huge esplanade housing several museums. The kind of huge square that the architect had imagined as a place to live but where, in the end, the locals don’t do much.
The museum is spread over three floors. At the top, there is a large and beautiful collection of traditional Slovenian objects. I was very interested in this part of the museum because I was able to get explanations about objects that I had already seen in farms or gostilnas in the Slovenian countryside. I also found information on the different shapes of kozolec, the large hay dryers that are found everywhere in the Slovenian countryside. Start on the top floor and work your way down.
A museum to better understand Slovenia and its people
If you decide to visit this museum , I recommend that you do so at the end of your stay in Slovenia, so that you don’t wander around in front of a collection of display cases filled with meaningless old wooden objects, but can instead make connections with what you saw during your Slovenian trip.
On the second floor there is an exhibition on humanity in general, with far too synthetic displays on the different tribes around the planet. I found this part uninteresting.
On the ground floor there was a temporary exhibition of traditional Trieste dress (when I was there). Don’t miss the souvenir shop, designed by Plecnik, Ljubljana’s brilliant architect.
The leafy terrace of the museumbar is very pleasant, sunny and often full in the evenings and late afternoons when the weather is fine. You’ll find deckchairs there. It’s a quiet, off-the-beaten-track place to have a drink after visiting the museum and one of Ljubljana’s new trendy spots.
Good restaurant nearby : This museum is also very close to the Das is valter restaurant, which is a very good, inexpensive address in Ljubljana. Drop in if you’re feeling peckish before or after your visit (and if you’re not a vegetarian…).
Also worth a look: just next door, take a look at the Metelkova street art squat.
Thingsto remember: Start your visit on the top floor of the museum, which is by far the most interesting and the most beautiful. Then take a quick look at the lower floors. There’s plenty to do in Ljubljana, so don’t waste any time.
What you’ll see on the top floor of the museum
Tip : The museum is free on the first Sunday of every month.
- Slovenski etnografski muzej – Metelkova ulica 2
- www.etno-muzej.si
The Union Brewery
The proud owners of the Union Brewery in 1928
The Union brewery is a huge factory right in the heart of the Slovenian capital. It was built on this very spot over a century ago for two reasons:
- The presence of several springs meant that the brewery had plenty of water to produce beer.
- The second reason was the railway line located at the foot of the factory, an advantage for shipping barrels of beer both to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and to Italy.
The Union brewery is located in the heart of Ljubljana.
Go to the reception desk at the back of the building at the times indicated for the three daily tours. You’ll be greeted by a member of staff who will take you on a tour of the entire factory, from production to bottling and storage on 19 floors! We watch the workers at work. The plant produces beer as well as fruit juices and soft drinks. In short, if you’ve always wanted to know how beer was made or how a bottle of fruit juice was bottled, the Ljubljana museum is the place to go.
After an hour’s tour of the factory, you enter a historic brewery building where you can see the machinery used 50 or 100 years ago. Having just seen the latest machines, it’s fascinating to see how these machine tools have evolved. At the end of the tour, you are offered a pint of the local production and can eat es traditional dishes in the brand new bar.
Disappointing: The tour has cost €15 since 2017. This is a bit steep, and recently the factory section has been replaced by a 3D virtual tour. In short, this tour has lost its lustre and is much less interesting than before .
Union Brewery – Pivovarniška ulica 2
http://www.pivo-union.si
3 Ljubljana museums to avoid
Here are the museums to avoid in Ljubljana: The first is the new Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, the MSUM.
This museum displays works of modern Yugoslav and Slovenian art. I’m a great fan of modern art, but I wasn’t thrilled by this museum, which I found far too elitist and “extreme”. The curator of the MSUM selected works that didn’t really touch or interest me.
Warning: in many rooms, a TV broadcasts a strange black & white film that seems uninteresting, or a drawing on an A4 sheet of paper that many of you thought could very well have been made by a pupil at one of Ljubljana’s nursery schools. If you’re a great connoisseur of modern art, then you might just like this highly specialised museum.
The MSUM website
A terrifying table recounts Yugoslav artist Marina Abramovic’sterrifying Rhythm 0 performance in 1974, which lasted six hours. Abramović stood motionless in a room and the audience was invited to do whatever they wanted to her, using one of 72 objects she had placed on a table. There was a rose, a feather, perfume, honey, bread, grapes, wine, scissors, a scalpel, nails, a metal bar, a gun loaded with a bullet, a hammer, an axe, pins and so on. See it here
Right next to the Museum of Modern Art is the Mestni muzej Ljubljana.
From theoutside, it looks more like a building where computer specialists work than a museum. Inside, you can find anything and everything. In short, with all the tack, models and antique furniture, it’s easy to get indigestion.
The Mestni muzej website
In my opinion, the last museum to avoid is the Prirodoslovni muzej Slovenije.
This too is a jumble of things, from cut stones dating fromEmona, the Roman town that preceded Ljubljana, to animals soaking in jars of formaldehyde. It’s classic museum fare, but it didn’t really pique my interest, and I’m afraid it won’t for you either. It’s more of a museum for the locals than for tourists.