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Archive of the Archivalias of the Month of 2016

The online column Archivalia of the Month has been published since January 2011. Its purpose is to promote the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and its archival holdings. Presented in the column are archival documents that are interesting visually and content-wise, as well as newly acquired documents or the ones that have so far been overlooked. Also published are documents relating to various anniversaries, current events and many more.

Below you will find the Archivalias of the Month of 2016.
Bee hive.

Bear Bojan and his bees. | Author Arhiv Republike Slovenije

  • December 2016

    70 Years of the Railway Line Brčko –Banovići

    This month’s archivalia, using mostly records kept by the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, aims to present the reasons for the building of the Brćko-Banovići “youth railway line” and to describe the role of Slovenian youth in this project. An almost 90 km long railway line was built in just over six months. 

  • November 2016

    The Centenary of the Death of the Emperor Franz Joseph

    On November 21, 1916 Emperor Franz Joseph died after having ruled for 68 years. Letters of condolence from offices, various societies and publicly active individuals immediately started to pour to the Vienna court and to various provincial authorities. They were all written in somewhat similar manner; starting with expressions of deepest sympathy, followed by the listing of the emperor’s achievements, and concluding with the paying of the respect to the new emperor. Although written in the same spirit, the here presented document of the Carniolan Chamber of Commerce and Crafts for Carniola was published in a series of papers that the said Chamber regularly put out.

  • October 2016

    When Tourism Was Still in Its Early Stages

    The Rules of the Society for Beautification of the Market Town of Postojna for the Welcoming of Foreign Travelers were published in 1883 and were bilingual, written in German and Slovenian. The rules of this Postojna "tourism" society were probably the first rules of any such society that were written in the Slovenian language and show the important contribution that a local society made to the development of tourism in Slovenia.

  • September 2016

    Bojno polje bitke pri Custozzi 24. 6. 1866

    Map and chart collection of the Archives of Republic of Slovenia includes 3210 items, divided into 12 thematic units. Included among the unit of Military operations are 43 items, among them the charts that were drawn after the battle of Custoza in June 1866 are particularly interesting.

  • August 2016

    Impressions from the Exhibition on Non-Alcoholic Drinks Held in Ljubljana in 1954 and the Effort of the Slovenian Red Cross to Fight Alcoholism

    In the autumn of 1954, the Slovenian Red Cross organized an exhibition on non-alcoholic drinks. Around 30.000 people visited the exhibition and their reviews are gathered in the book that we are presenting here as this month’s archivalia. Most of the reviews were positive, encouraging the hosting of similar exhibitions, but some also drew attention to the overcharging and poor quality of non-alcoholic drinks and to the fact that it was sometimes impossible to buy them in the pubs or in the shops.

  • July 2016

    Dr. Igor Breznik, His Faith and the Collection of Drawings from the Gonars Concentration Camp

    In 2014, the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia received a donation which among other things included also part of the legacy of dr. Igor Breznik. In it there is a collection of drawings made at the Italian concentration camp in Gonars. Included in the collection are two watercolours and 21 drawings, all created at the concentration camp in 1942. The author of most of drawings and watercolours is Valentin Horvat.

  • June 2016

    France Tomšič and the Litostroj Workers’ Strike

    Presented here as this month's archivalia are the minutes of the first meeting of the famous Litostroj strike committee of December 1987. Included on the agenda was a discussion about the decisions and demands made by the Litostroj workers at the protest before the then Slovenian assembly and later in Cankarjev dom. The minutes are a part of the private fonds of France Tomšič. The fonds was transferred to the Archives of the RS in 2014 and contains documents that deal mostly with Tomšič's role in the process of Slovenia's democratization and its path towards an independent state.

  • May 2016

    Warehouse of Idrija Mercury Mine in Vrhnika

    The grain warehouse for the needs of the Idrija mercury mine was built in the 1760s. When a century later the railway to Trieste was completed which put a stop to traffic on the river of Ljubljanica, the warehouse lost its meaning and was sold by the state. Preserved among the archival records of the Provincial Building Directorate in Ljubljana are a number of interesting plans of which two are presented here as this month's archivalia.

  • April 2016

    Bojan the Bear - The Bees

    Preserved in the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia is the legacy of the Slovenian filmmaker Dušan Povh, which among other things includes his correspondence, film related literature, contracts, personal documents, as well as original shooting books for Bojan the Bear series of animated films. Slovenian Film Archives keeps all 37 of the animated films on the cute children's character, who in his unique way uses colours and drawings to create various, often imaginary, situtions.

  • March 2016

    Memorandum and Letter of the Regional National Liberation Committee for the Slovenian Littoral and Trieste Presented to the Inter-Allied Boundary Commission

    On March 7, 1946, members of the Inter-Allied Boundary Commission arrived to Trieste to compile a report and to suggest the drawing of the state border between Yugoslavia and Italy. On March 11, 1946, the commission received the representatives of the Regional National Liberation Committee for the Slovenian Littoral and Trieste and was presented with their memorandum. The memorandum consisted of three parts, all aimed to justify the necessity for the entire Julian March and Trieste to be assigned to Yugoslavia.

  • February 2016

    Telephone in 99 Slovenian Towns a Century Ago

    The first lists of telephone subscribers appeared directly at the beginning of the operation of telephone networks. 140 years after Bell's invention of the electromagnetic telephone we present Directory of Telephone Subscribers and Telephone Offices for Slovenia, which initially also gives general instructions on how to use the phone at all, the review of telephone subscribers in a series of highlights from the life of 99 Slovenian towns in 1922.

  • January 2016

    Half a Millenium Since the Settling of the Dispute Between the Convent in Mekinje and the Town of Kamnik

    Mid-April 2016 marks the 500th anniversary of the settling of the dispute between the Mekinje convent and the town of Kamnik in regard to the cutting down of trees in the territory of the Kamniška Bistica valley. The verdict was issued by the Carniolan governor and the lord of Schonberg Hans Auersperg (Janns von Auersperg), and by the Carniolan Vicedom Erasem Braunbart (Erasmen Braunwart). The charter was written in two identical copies and authenticated with two pendant seals of both issuers. The charter presented here is kept in our Collection of charters and is one of the 220 charters in the series Charters of the Convent of the Order of the Poor Clares in Mekinje.