Treasure hunting in Ljubljana

On Tuesday our Spanish friends went looking for a treasure around the city center of Ljubljana. That day we also had some workshops and the next day we had presentations. Here you can see what we have told your exchange partners about Slovenia.

Here we present you some of most interesting parts of Ljubljana:

 

Gimnazija Poljane

Gimnazija Poljane is a state secondary general education school for students aged between fifteen and nineteen. It is a school with a long and rich tradition. It was founded as a lower secondary school with German as the language of general use in 1889. In 1918 the building was renovated and the German language was replaced by Slovene. The architecture of the building is the only sign of its age. More than nine hundred students in thirty-two classes and more than eighty teachers work in new, renovated and specialized classrooms, using modern teaching methods.

Central Ljubljana Market

 The Central Ljubljana Market place is one of the most beautiful architectural monuments in Ljubljana. In the past here stood the diocesan secondary school (gymnasia and higher school), which was destroyed in 1895 by the earthquake. So between 1940 and 1950 today’s market place was built in that place. It was designed by a very well-known Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik, modelled on Renaissance and Roman influence. The Market hall extends from “Zmajski most” to “Tromostovje” and it is divided into two parts: the central place, “Vodnikov trg” and the place along Ljubljanica, “Plečnik market hall”. 

For Ljubljana and its habitants it is very important, because beside fresh daily offer of fruit and vegetables and of course milk products, pastries, clothes, footwear, flowers and so called “woodware”, it is also known as a place for greeting and meeting of locals and also tourists.

Jože Plečnik (1872-1957)

Jože Plečnik was one of the most important figures of the 20th century architecture. He was the first post-modernist at the beginning of the modernist era and the last classical architect.
Plečnik built many important buildings such as the Zacherl House in Vienna, the Hradčany and the church of the Sacred Heart in Prague, National and University Library, Triple Bridge, Mutual Insurance Building, etc. in Ljubljana…His style was very much influenced by his trips to Rome and Paris as a student where he had admired the ancient Classical and Renaissance masters. He developed his own very special language using simplified manneristic and classical elements which were no longer tied to the plain fulfillment of a function but to the expression of an ideal.
For citizens of Ljubljana Plečnik is one of the most important architects because he built the most important buildings of Ljubljana and contributed to the beautiful appearence of the city.

The Franciscan Church of the Annunciation

  The Franciscan Church of the Annunciation (Slovene: Frančiškanska cerkev Marijinega oznanjenja or commonly Frančiškanska cerkev) is a Franciscan church located on Prešeren Square in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is the parish church of Ljubljana – Annunciation Parish. Built between 1646 and 1660, it replaced an older church on the same site. The layout takes the form of an early-Baroque basilica with one nave and two rows ol lateral chapels. The Baroque main altar was executed by the sculptor Francesco Robba. Much of the original frescos were ruined by the cracks in the ceiling caused by the Ljubljana earthquake in 1895. The new frescos were painted by the Slovene impressionist painter Matej Sternen.

 

Prešeren Square

  Prešeren Square is the central square in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. A statue of the Slovene national poet France Prešeren with a muse stands in the centre of the square. The statue faces the window where Prešeren’s “muse” used to live. There is a small statue on that building as well. The square and surroundings were permanently closed to traffic on 1 September 2007.

Stara Ljubljana

 Old Ljubljana consists of three parts: Town Square, Old Square and Upper Square. We are standing in the Town Square, in front of the Town Hall (Rotovž) and The Robba fountain officially known as the Fountain of the Three Rivers of Carniola.

The three squares embrace the foot of Castle Hill and flow one into another. They are of a typical Gothic, wreathed design. Most of the houses lining them are Baroque and only some, with their axes at right angles to the street, have retained their medieval layout.

There are also a lot of shops and bars where Slovenians spend their time with friends. The streets of Stara Ljubljana are also very popular among Slovenians because they love to walk around and enjoy the historical view that the architecture of Stara Ljubljana offers them.

  

Shoemakers’s Bridge

 Shoemakers’ Bridge is one of the oldest bridges crossing the river in Ljubljana, and dates back to at least the 13th century. It started as a wooden bridge with a butchers shop on it, but the stench from the meat was so strong that the Emperor at the time paid to have them relocated. The occupiers of their booths following this were shoemakers, and so the bridge has its present name.

The bridge has been reconstructed on many times through its long history due to floods or fires. However this was later relocated and replaced with the current stone bridge designed by the architect Jože Plečnik.

Ljubljanica

Ljubljanica is one of the most important rivers in Slovenia. It runs through Slovenian capital Ljubljana. Ljubljana or »river of the seven names« is the right affluent of Slovenians biggest rover Sava. Ljubljanica is interesting also because of the karst feature on her way from spring to mouth. Ljubljanica also flows across Cerknica Lake, which is world-famous because of dry up.

Ljubljanica appears in Prešerns ballad Povodni mož (Water sprite) and it is said that in Ljubljanica lives a water sprite, which took the beautiful Urška to his underwater home.

National and university library – NUK

 The library was established by a decree issued by the empress Maria Theresa in 1774. Around 637 books that were saved from the fire in Jesuit College were now held in the library. In 1794 the library became a public profile library and in 1807 it began with the storage of all the publications of Carniola. As more and more books were held in the library, architect Jože Plečnik created plans for the new University Library. It was build between 1936 and 1941 and it’s considered the greatest work of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana. The exterior is built from brick and stone. After liberation in 1945, the University Library was legally recognized as the National and University Library in Ljubljana. Today it’s also known as NUK and it is the biggest Slovenian library. It contains over 240.000 books and manuscripts.

Peglezen

 The word denotes not just the clothes iron, but also about the interesting building, which it resembles in shape and was quickly named ‘the Peglezen building’ by the people of Ljubljana.

It is located on the way from Vodnikov trg towards Cukrarna and not far from the tunnel under the Ljubljana Castle.

The building has a very long and narrow plot and a very nice complete set of old houses at the Poljanska street. In the same spot, the building of a similar ‘iron’ shape previously stood there, but it was the Ljubljana earthquake in 1895 that damaged it so much, that it had to be demolished.

Plečnik’s Peglezen building was built at the end of July 1934. In front of the front side of the building he placed a high mast on a round wooden base. The building is now a dwelling place with various commercial premises on the ground floor. In 1989, the mast consisting of three pillars has been rebuilt. Each one of them is colored in the colors of a Tricolor. As part of the campaign “Ljubljana, my city” run by the Ljubljana town hall, the facade of Peglezen has also been restored.

The University of Ljubljana

   The University of Ljubljana is the first and the largest university in Slovenia; with 64,000 enrolled undergraduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.

The university as such was first founded in by the French Imperial administration of the Illyrian Provinces. The university was disbanded in 1813, when the Austrian Government regained control.

It was built in 1902 and in 1919 it became and still is the central university building. The University of Ljubljana practices basic, applied and development research, striving for excellence and quality of the highest standard in all fields of science and arts, such as the humanities, social sciences, linguistics, arts, medicine, natural sciences and technology. The University also promotes interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary studies.

The UL comprises 26 members incorporating several hundred different organizational entities and around 3500 teaching and research staff.

Congress Square

 Congress Square (Slovene: Kongresni trg) is one of the central squares in Ljubljana.

The Square was built in 1821 on the site of the ruins of a medieval Capuchin monastery which had been abolished during the reign of the Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. The square was used for ceremonial purposes during the Congress of Ljubljana. After the Congress, a park was planted in the center of the square, which soon acquired the name Park Zvezda (Star Park), due to its shape. The Square was named after the Congress of Ljubljana.

The Square has had a highly symbolic role in modern Slovenian history. On October 29, 1918, the independence from Austrian-Hungarian rule and the establishment of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was proclaimed during a mass demonstration on the square. In May 1945, the Yugoslav Communist leader Josip Broz Tito first visited Slovenia after World War II and held a speech on the balcony of the University of Ljubljana, which stands on the square.

Around the square you’ll find the following buildings:

• University of Ljubljana-originally a ducal palace, built between 1898-1902, main seat of the university
• Slovene Philharmonics (Slovenska filharmonija), dates to 1892, you can still see performances here
• Ursuline Church of the Holy Trinity (Ursulinska Cerkev Sv Trojice), completed in 1726, we didn’t go inside but the high altar is the main feature inside, made from African marble and decorated with figures representing Faith, Hope and Charity.
• Casino (Kazina), a Classicist mansion built in 1837 to have a place to entertain the city’s elite residents, it’s now a dance school and bookstore.

 

El martés nuestros amogios españoles estaban buscando los tesoros alrededor del centro de la ciudad Ljubljana. Ellos caminaban por la ciudad y nosotros les presentamos los lugares más importantes de Ljubljana. Mientras escuchaban las presentaciones tenían que resolver las hojas de trabajo. Ahora vamos enumerar qué partes de Ljubljana vieron: el Instituto de Poljane, el mercado en el centro de Ljubljana, la arquitectura de Jože Plečnik, la iglesia Franciscana de la Anunciación, la Plaza de Prešeren, el casco viejo, el puente del Zapatero, el río Ljubljanica, la biblioteca Nacional de la Universidad, Peglezen (la casa en forma de plancha), la universidad de Ljubljana y la Plaza del Congreso.