Secrets from the Water – 1st International Day of Underwater Cultural Heritage
The exhibition Secrets from the Waters, created with the support of the Ministry of Culture, presents the richness and diversity of underwater cultural heritage and introduces visitors to the stories hidden beneath the surface of Slovenian rivers, lakes and seas. With the exhibition, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia joins the first celebration of the International Day of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which UNESCO declared for 2025. After the opening of the exhibition in front of Gruber's Palace in Ljubljana, the story of Secrets from the Water continues elsewhere in Slovenia as well. In September, the exhibitions will also be open in Celje and Izola, followed by further tours across Slovenia.
Underwater cultural heritage is an important, but mostly hidden part of our shared past. Beneath the surface of rivers, lakes and seas, traces of human activity are preserved – from sunken vessels, ports and bridges to the remains of settlements and objects that tell of everyday life, transport and trade over centuries and millennia.
Slovenia boasts one of the longest traditions of underwater archaeological research in Europe, as its origins date back to 1884, when Karel Dežman organized one of the first systematic underwater archaeological research in Europe in Ljubljana, near Vrhnika. Through the exhibition and events that will take place throughout Slovenia in the coming weeks, we want to bring underwater heritage and that special moment of discovery closer to visitors, when an archaeologist submerges underwater and identifies the remains that have remained there hidden for centuries or even millennia.
Among the stories the exhibition highlights are the Celtic-Roman ruins from Ljubljanica, the ruins of the bottom of Lake Bled, the wreckage of the Nina and Maria Andrina trojans, and the remains of a seaplane in the Piranski Zaliv.
Exhibition before Gruberjevo the palace or at tour to end November 2026, in the future months See they will secrets from water z exhibitions and Others Events visited also elsewhere after To Slovenia.
The exhibition at the Celje Regional Unit headquarters will be open from 9th September 2026, while the exhibition at the Piran Regional Unit headquarters will be open from 8th September 2026.
We are also preparing an outdoor exhibition, with which we will be visiting various locations across the country in the coming months. Thus, in the second half of September 2026, as part of the Days of European Cultural Heritage and the Cultural Heritage Week, we will be visiting the Regional Museum of Ptuj Ormož; the exhibition will be set up in the lower courtyard of Ptuj Castle. This will be followed by a visit to Murska Sobota in cooperation with the Pomurje Museum Murska Sobota. In 2027, we will continue with visits in January 2027 in Kostanjevica na Krki, in February 2027 in Tolmin in cooperation with the Tolmin Museum, and on Vrhnika in cooperation with the Ivan Cankar Foundation. For details of the visits, we invite you to follow the News on our website.
