Loka Museum
Medieval castle above Škofja Loka holding the town museum's history, craft and art collections.
Loka Castle looks down on Škofja Loka from a hill above the meeting of the Poljane and Selca Sora rivers. The estate was granted to the bishops of Freising in 973 and stayed in their hands until 1803, and the castle, recorded from the early thirteenth century, served as their administrative seat. It was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1511 and given a defensive wall with towers, and in the late nineteenth century it passed to the Ursuline order as a convent.
Since 1959 the castle has housed the Loka Museum, a general museum whose permanent collections cover archaeology, the history of the Freising estate, crafts and guilds, ethnology, natural history and art, including works by the local painter Ivan Grohar. The museum runs further sites in the town, among them Škopar's House and the Round Tower, and its programme takes in lectures, workshops, concerts and guided walks through one of Slovenia's best preserved medieval town centres.
Highlights
- Permanent collections spread over several sites in and around the town
- Seat of the Freising bishops, who held Loka from 973 to 1803
- Craft, guild and ethnology displays in the rebuilt castle
- Views over the medieval town from the castle terrace
![[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]title QS:P1476,en:"[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]"label QS:Len,"[King Thibaw Min's Throne Room - Mandalay]"](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Felice_Beato_%28British%2C_born_Italy_-_%28King_Thibaw_Min%27s_Throne_Room_-_Mandalay%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/500px-Felice_Beato_%28British%2C_born_Italy_-_%28King_Thibaw_Min%27s_Throne_Room_-_Mandalay%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
