Saturday, 8. 9. 2012

Žale cemetery

Ljubljana Tourism has added guided tours of Plečnik’s heritage and the other features of Žale Cemetery to its regular sightseeing trips.

Ljubljana’s Žale Cemetery is an important cultural heritage monument and is considered to be one of Europe’s most remarkable cemeteries.

Until now, tours of the cemetery were organised on an ad hoc basis, but will henceforth have a regular schedule. There are two foreseen this year; the first was on 8 September, and the second is to be on Saturday 6 October 2012. Next year, the guided tours are to run in Slovene and in English every first Saturday of the month from May to October.

The guide will await visitors at 10am in front of the main entrance to the Plečnik complex. The guided tour is planned to feature a view of the most notable elements of Plečnik’s Žale, visits to the graves of famous Slovenes as well as views of the works of famous sculptors and other important works in the old part of Žale, which is an open-air museum. There then follows a trip around the new part of the cemetery, built in monumental style as a ‘city of the dead’, designed in 1982 by architect Marko Mušič.

Cemeteries have significant cultural and historical importance and are thus a major tourist attraction in every city. In 2007, the funeral complex of Ljubljana Žale – Plečnik’s Garden of All Saints was awarded the European Heritage label. Žale is one of the most original cemetery architectural solutions of the 20th century. It is on the list of the Association of Culturally Important European Cemeteries (ASCE) and admired by professionals and the general public from around the world alike.

The guided tour costs €10 per person.