Maribor Regional Museum
Regional collections in Maribor Castle, whose Rococo staircase is among Slovenia's finest.
The Maribor Regional Museum was founded in 1903 by the local museum society and has occupied the town castle since the late 1930s, when the ethnographer Franjo Bas moved the collections there. The castle itself was begun in 1478 on the orders of Emperor Frederick III, as a strongpoint in the north-eastern corner of the walled town rather than a residence. Later owners extended it repeatedly, so the building now ranges from late Gothic fabric through Renaissance arcades to substantial Baroque rebuilding.
The best known architectural feature is the Rococo staircase of the mid eighteenth century, with balustrades carved with putti and allegorical figures, alongside the Loretto chapel and the painted Knights' Hall. Displays cover archaeology of the Drava valley, the medieval and early modern town, crafts and guilds, costume and textiles, furniture, and an old pharmacy interior. The museum also runs a programme of lectures, family workshops and events tied to the city's calendar, and cares for further heritage sites in the surrounding region.
Highlights
- Rococo staircase with carved putti and allegorical figures
- Knights' Hall with illusionistic eighteenth-century painting
- Loretto chapel inside the castle
- Archaeology of the Drava valley and displays on guilds and costume
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