Technical Museum of Slovenia Collections
From grain to bread
The exhibition as a whole features the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in Slovenia through the ages. Indeed farming – in the sense of producing food – was the principal economic activity for the great majority of the Slovene people since time immemorial. In the collection entitled From Grain to Bread, special emphasis is placed on the cultivation and processing of grain. The tools and machinery which farmers once used to perform such activities as ploughing, tilling, sowing, cultivating, harvesting and threshing are also on show.
The idea of establishing a Slovenian agricultural museum is more than 130 years old, but it had to wait for realisation until 1966, when the Technical Museum of Slovenia finally included the agricultural museum among its departments. In 1975 the new outbuilding was built in Bistra which solved the problem of permanent exhibition spaces so that we were finally able to start dealing with content issues. After renovation of the building we started collecting museum items, prepared theme exhibitions and the rudiments for the future collections.
The permanent collection shows one of the oldest and most indispensable crafts of the past, which developed in parallel with the production of cereals. The museum visitors can follow the development of milling machines from the simplest grinders and stamp mills, through manual and electric mills, to the most modern milling industry. The collection is enriched by a slide show of mills in Slovenia, which shows their work and portraits of millers.
The collection is proof of the rich bread-baking culture on Slovenian soil; exhibiting the history of dough preparation and bread baking, focusing on the many types and symbolical meanings of bread in the Slovenian culture. Namely, in the past, bread was more than merely food, it played an important social role in everyday life and in special feast day rituals. Additionally, you can see the various objects and utensils used by housewives in the past. The oldest written records regarding this craft in Slovenia date back to Piran from the end of the 13th century. The exhibition is rounded off by a presentation of modern, almost fully automated bread production in bakeries.
Bread baking workshop
The mentor teaches the participants the whole procedure of bread baking, the traditional way, from dough kneading to baking bread in a special bread oven. Every participant takes home a loaf of deliciously fragrant bread.
Price is 20,00 € per person. For adults only.
Strictly limited number of spaces available requires prior applications for the workshops. You can apply by phone 01 750 66 72 or e-mail: programi@tms.si
