Protection

of cultural heritage

goes beyond the protection of individual buildings and objects. It integrates different skills into specialised knowledge and theoretical approaches, taking into account the spatial totality and values of the cultural environment.

We connect knowlegde and approaches in Conservation, Conservation Restoration and Preventive archaeology.

Primeri dobrih praks

Train station in Nova Gorica

The railway station is located right on the Italian-Slovenian border, on the western edge of Nova Gorica's town centre. The most important station complex of the Bohinj line in the territory of the present-day Republic of Slovenia, it has been registered as an immovable cultural heritage site since 1996. The broadly designed roundhouse was built to serve the needs of the Bohinj line, which was constructed between 1900 and 1906 as the northern or second roundhouse of the town of Gorizia, and comprised a station building and a technical traction centre for supplying steam locomotives for traffic on the geographically demanding line.

Nova Gorica railway station on Europe Square, a meeting point of two cities and several cultures
The corridor of the entrance tower after the reconstruction in 2024-2025; by ZVKDS conservator Katja Kosič
Primeri dobrih praks

Podčetrtek Castle

In 2020, the municipality of Podčetrtek became the sole owner of the castle and immediately organised a meeting with the competent conservators of the ZVKDS, Celje. After a thorough inspection, it was decided that the restoration of the castle would be carried out in several phases.

The façade after renovation (photo: Borut Pihlar)
Podčetrtek Castle
Primeri dobrih praks

Mary with the Child on the throne and the six saints

In January 2019, when a skilled technical team removed the painting from the wall of the Cathedral of Koper, our team began a period of daily procedures, from removing non-original layers, puttying and retouching to the final varnishing of the paintings.

Vittore Carpaccio, Mary with the Child on the Throne and the Six Saints
Vittore Carpaccio, Mary with the Child on the throne and the six saints, before the intervention
Primeri dobrih praks

Rog factory

In the renovated Rog factory, the industrial process will continue with production activities in nine production laboratories on the ground floor, such as textile, wood, metal, green, ceramics, glass and others.

Primeri dobrih praks

Renovation of Tabor Primary School I

The renovation project is a successful example of energy renovation of a damaged and dilapidated structural modernist architecture from the late 1970s.

Presentation of the renovation of Tabor I Primary School in Maribor, main façade after renovation Sept. 2023
Presentation of the renovation of Tabor I Primary School in Maribor, during the renovation in July 2023
Primeri dobrih praks

Žiče Carthusian

is an exceptional monument of monastic architecture, which transcends the Slovenian context. All the main stylistic periods of European art are preserved in its architectural fabric. Its architectural, symbolic, historical, archaeological and landscape values make it of exceptional importance for the country, which is why it was declared a cultural monument of national importance in 2015.

Žiče Carthusian
Žiče Carthusian
Primeri dobrih praks

SNG Drama Ljubljana

of 1410 m² were located within the walls - intra muros - of the Roman Colonia Iulie Emone, in its north-western part. The proximity of the Forum, the central public space of the colony, and the main Cardo, the city's main north-south street, carries great archaeological potential.

Archaeological site Drama, Ljubljana
Primeri dobrih praks

Interventions at Gruber Palace

Between 2018 and 2022, under the direction of Martina Lesar Kikelj, an extremely extensive and technically demanding project was carried out on the ceiling painting at the top of the staircase of the Gruber Palace. Gruber Palace is an art historical monument, as its interior contains works of art of exceptional importance for both Slovenian and European art.

Gruber Palace, Ljubljana
Primeri dobrih praks

The salterns through time

Remote sensing methods such as airborne laser scanning always show time and again that the landscape is nowhere empty, it is full of footprints everywhere of past human activity. This multitude of traces challenges us the challenge of how to protect them.

Solina today, photo by Matjaž Kljun, 2022, ZVKDS OE Piran
Train station in Nova Gorica
Podčetrtek Castle
Mary with the Child on the throne and the six saints
Rog factory
Renovation of Tabor Primary School I
Žiče Carthusian
SNG Drama Ljubljana
Interventions at Gruber Palace
The salterns through time

Advice for owners

Register of immovable cultural heritage

The Register of Immovable Cultural Heritage is the official, computerised database of cultural heritage in the territory of Slovenia, under the responsibility of the State.

How do I obtain cultural heritage conditions and consent?

Before any intervention in cultural heritage or in the land for construction within a registered archaeological site, it is necessary to obtain cultural heritage consent from the competent IPCHS regional unit, and before that, cultural heritage conditions.

Applications

Owners or their proxies submit applications for cultural protection conditions or consents or for the preparation of an offer to carry out preliminary archaeological investigations on the forms provided in the Applications window.

The Epiphany in a new guise
Examples of good practice

The Sign of Mary

In 2024, the Department of Stones and Stucco of the ZVKDS Restoration Centre completed the comprehensive restoration of the Marian Marian Sign from Radlje ob Dravi, which began with the preparation of a conservation plan in 2018 and continued with surveys and dismantling in 2020.

Špela Govže
Piran, lighthouse after renovation
Examples of good practice

Piran Lighthouse

The mysterious history of the buildings that make up the monument still hides many unsolved questions and riddles under its cloak, and in many details it is still wisely silent. The Piran Lighthouse remains an indispensable and picturesque finishing touch to the Piranese skyline at the tip of the Piranese promontory.

Vanja Prohinar
Renaissance portal restored and vaulted ceilings preserved_Photosjpg
Examples of good practice

Mestni trg 27 and Ciril-Metodov trg 21 in Ljubljana

The renovation combined the preservation of historic elements and upgrading with 21st century solutions. The basic guiding principle was to improve and approximate to the original design and to build on the comprehensive renovation of the 1960s under the direction of the Institute for the Redevelopment of Old Ljubljana.

Hana Brus and Marija Režek Kambič
Conservation of the stone marker from Srževice
Examples of good practice

Conservation of the stone marker from Srževice

We have kept to the principle of minimum intervention, so we have not reconstructed the missing parts.

Špela Govže
Presentation of the renovation of Tabor I Primary School in Maribor, main façade after renovation Sept. 2023
Examples of good practice

Renovation of Tabor Primary School I

The renovation project is a successful example of energy renovation of a damaged and dilapidated structural modernist architecture from the late 1970s.

Eva Sapač
Rotunda of St. Elijah, Koper, after renovation, photo by Marko Pršina
Examples of good practice

Rotunda of St. Elijah

Although the sacral building has a simple architectural design, it is only on the basis of the preserved built structures that it can be deduced and assumed that it is most probably the oldest building in Koper.

Mojca Marjana Kovač
The façade after renovation (photo: Borut Pihlar)
Examples of good practice

Podčetrtek Castle

In 2020, the municipality of Podčetrtek became the sole owner of the castle and immediately organised a meeting with the competent conservators of the ZVKDS, Celje. After a thorough inspection, it was decided that the restoration of the castle would be carried out in several phases.

Danijela Brišnik
View of the monastery from the south-east, photo by Tadej Bolta, 2022
Examples of good practice

Protection of the ruins of the Žiče Carthusian Monastery

Žiče Carthusian Monastery is an exceptional monument of monastic architecture that transcends the Slovenian landscape. Its architectural fabric preserves all the main stylistic periods of European art. Its architectural, symbolic, historical, archaeological and landscape values make it of exceptional importance for the country, which is why it was declared a cultural monument of national importance in 2015.

Matija Plevnik
Nova Gorica railway station on Europe Square, a meeting point of two cities and several cultures
Examples of good practice

Train station in Nova Gorica

The railway station is located right on the Italian-Slovenian border, on the western edge of Nova Gorica's town centre. The most important station complex of the Bohinj line in the territory of the present-day Republic of Slovenia, it has been registered as an immovable cultural heritage site since 1996.

Katja kosič
LJ - Gruber Palace, painting in the dome after the intervention
Examples of good practice

Kremser Schmidt painting

Between 2018 and 2022, extensive conservation and restoration work was carried out on the ceiling painting of the staircase of the Gruber Palace.

Martina Lesar Kikelj
Park of Villa Rafut
Examples of good practice

Renovation of the park of Villa Rafut

The renovation, which was completed at the beginning of 2024, has integrated the park areas of Rafutski Park into a coherent whole and transformed them into a public urban park.

Katja Kosič
The prison wall and the old cultural landscape between Sv. Ahac and Stražica near Ilirska Bistrica
The wall and the ancient cultural landscape

between St. Ahac and Strazica

Remote sensing methods such as airborne laser scanning always show time and again that the landscape is nowhere empty, it is full of footprints everywhere of past human activity. This multitude of traces challenges us the challenge of how to protect them.

Dimitrij Mlekuž Vrhovnik
Vittore Carpaccio, painting after conservation and restoration work.
Examples of good practice

Vittorio Carpaccio's organ paintings

The work on the organ paintings by the Venetian Renaissance master Vittorio Carpaccio from the Church of the Assumption in Koper began in 2010 with a naturalistic investigation of the painting and restoration materials.

Barbka Hirci
Examples of good practice

The renovated Rog factory

The former Rog factory is an important monument of industrialisation in Slovenia and after renovation, the building still expresses its industrial character with its typical large coffered windows and unpainted plasterwork of extended mortar.

Tatjana Adamič

In time

Train station in Nova Gorica
5. 2. 2025

Train station in Nova Gorica

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Presentation of the monograph Architects Brothers Miloš, Danilo and Marijan Lapajne
3. 2. 2025

Presentation of the monograph Architects Brothers Miloš, Danilo and Marijan Lapajne

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Archaeology NUK II - Discovery of the Hippocavist in the area of insula XLVI
29. 1. 2025

Archaeology NUK II - Discovery of the Hippocavist in the area of insula XLVI

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For knowledge

Publications

Here you will find publications we produce, videos and other content we produce to help people understand the importance of the historic environment and therefore our mission to protect heritage. All our authors are experts in their chosen field. Their work is designed to inspire, inform and educate.

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