West Bank of the Ljubljanica River (Left Bank)

I tour this section of the town on my first day in Ljubljana.  It included the areas commonly associated with the Centar part of the city.

From the hotel, I headed south on Miklošičeva cesta.  Across the street from the Grand Hotel Union, the city's premier hotel accommodations, are two distinctive buildings.  At Miklošičeva 8, is the former Cooperative Business Bank.  It has an interesting color scheme: a salmon base accented with blue, yellow and brick-colored geometric shapes.  The building does not appear to be a bank now; rather, it appears to house offices.  Two doors down, at Miklošičeva 4, is the former People's Loan Bank.  Its white façade is accented with hundreds of azure blue tiles, which make the building quite stunning.  Atop the center section are two women statues: one is holding a beehive, symbolizing industry (beekeeping is a national past-time), while the other holds a purse, symbolizing wealth.  These objects are small and somewhat indistinguishable from the street view, which is five floors away.  The building is now home to the Slovenska Zadružna Kmetijska Bank.

The colorful façade of the Cooperative Business Bank	The upper floors of the People's Loan Bank.  Notice the statues on either side of the upper windows.

Next on the tour is the Nebotičnik, located at the corner of Stefanova ulica and Slovenska ulica.  Designed in 1931 by Vladimir Subić, this structure replaced a convent that had stood in this location since the 17^th c. CE.  The Pension Institute financed the construction of this building, known locally as the Skyscraper.  Construction took eight months to complete and included several technological advancements in anti-seismic architecture.  When it opened, it was the tallest building in the Balkans, standing 70.35 meters (228.6 feet) high.  The thirteen stories provide office and residential space.  On the Slovenska ulica façade, is a four-meter tall sculpture of a woman, which is the work of Slovenian sculptor Lojze Dolinar.  As I discovered during my tour, sculptures like this one are found throughout the city.

Three blocks west of the Skyscraper is the Narodna Galerija, which houses the national art collection.  Entrance costs SIT 700, and the gallery includes a small museum and café.  In all of the collection rooms, the pieces are labeled in Slovene and English.  The storyboards, however, are written only in Slovene.  The exhibition space is separated into three areas: 

• On the lower level of the newer building, special exhibits are shown.  During my visit, there was an exhibit of graphic art by Italian master Giovanni Battista Piranesi.  
  
• On the second floor of the older building, which was designed by František Škabrout, the collection of Slovenian art is shown.  Works in the collection include those by Mihael Stroj, Matevž Langus, Jožef Tominc, Jurij Subić, Rihard Jakepič, Ivan Grphaer and Ivana Kobika.  Jakepič's Križanke in Autumn is exceptional, while Grohar's works remind me of Monet in color and Pissarro in style.  In this section, the grand staircase and hall are worth investigating.  Both included gilded lighting elements that are impressive; they appear to have been refurbished recently.  The hall is used to display Slovenian religious art, both carved wooden sculptures and paintings.
  
• On the second floor of the newer building, the third space exhibits the museum's collection of European art.  It is a far better space environmentally; it appears to have been updated and/or renovated recently.  There are two rooms dedicated to the Antwerp School and two rooms dedicated to medieval religious art.  This collection is average with no "big-name" pieces.

Across the street from the museum is the Serbian Orthodox Srbska Preavoslavna Cerkev Sv. Cirilia i Metoda, a church dedicated to the Saints Cyril and Methodius.  In 863, these two gents introduced the Slavic Glagolithic alphabet in Moravia, which paved the way for worship in the vernacular Slavic language.  This was the first language outside of Greek and Latin allowed by the Roman Catholic Church for use in the liturgy.  In Cyrillic, the alphabet in which Serbian now is written, the church is known as СРПСКА ПРАВОЕЛАВНА ЦРКВА ХРМСВ. ЋИРИЛА И МЕТОДИЉА.  Entry is permitted between 14.00 and 18.00 every day except Monday and no shorts are allowed.  The latter prevented me from viewing the church's interior.

Sitting on the quiet Trg Narodnih Nerojev are three important buildings.  On the north side is the Pozidana, the city's opera house.  Designed by Czech architects Hrásky and Hruby, the building was opened in 1892 as the Provincial Theater, where works in German (the language of society at the time) and Slovene were performed.  The building is now home to the Slovenian national opera and ballet companies.  The building's façade is adorned with statues by Alojz Gangi, which give it a nice touch.

On the western edge of the square is a building housing the Narodni Muzej and the Prirodoslovni Muzej Slovenije.  The current museums were founded in 1821 as the Provincial Museum and originally housed in the Lyceum, which was located where the Vodnikov trg is now.  The first two collections of the museums were Sigmund Zois's mineral collection and Count Franc Hohenwart's mollusk shells (he was also the museums' first curator).  In 1888, the museums were moved to its present location and separated into three branches - the two that are mentioned here and the Etnografski Muzej, which is located across town.  The museums were not worth the SIT 1000 entrance fee.  The only interesting sights were the two special exhibits: the first, Evropski Porcelan iz Tržaške Zbirke, showed a porcelain collection consisting of pieces from Italy, Austria, Germany, France and Russia; and the second showed glass art by local artists.

The third building is home to the Državni Zbor, the Slovenian parliament.  This governing body is composed of ninety deputies elected by the Slovenian citizens.  The Italian and Hungarian minority groups are guaranteed at least one deputy from each group.  Designed by V Glanz, this rather ugly building was constructed between 1954 and 1959.  The only interesting part of the building is the sculpture that surrounds the southern portal, which is the work of Z Kalin and K Putrih.

I headed south and came to the Trg Republike, which had been described as the Centar's main square.  It is somewhat disheartening that it is now a car park shrouded by two concrete high rises.  On the west side of the square are two sculptures that commemorate the Resistance movement; these are the work of Drago Tršor.  One sculpture displays people milling about, while the second shows people rising up.  Both symbolize the people's ability to fight oppressive rulers and, ultimately, determine their own fate (i.e get rid of Communism).  There are several consulates or embassies on the square, including the Australian, Belgian, British, Mexican, Swiss and the European Union delegations.  Southwest of the square is the Cankarjev dom, which serves as the city's cultural and congress center.  During my visit, it was showing an exhibit on Australian aboriginal art.

Moving east toward the river, I encountered Trg Francoske Revolucije, which commemorates the French Revolution.  There are a number of cafés on the square, where people were enjoying an afternoon beer.  On the southwest corner is the Ilirija Column.  Designed by Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik, the column's northern and southern façades display the garlanded head of Napoleon Bonaparte, who rules the Illyrian provinces from 1809 to 1813.  Below the sculptures are verses from Anton Vodnik's Ode to Illyria Resurrected.  Within the pillar are the ashes of a French soldier killed in 1813 during a battle with the Austrians.

Also on the square is the Križanke, which once housed the Knights of the Teutonic Order.  The order was first mentioned in 1268, and it is believed, at this time, there was an order house and a church dedicated to Saint Mary.  The present church was designed in 1714 by Dominico Rossi.  There is a pleasant courtyard with a café; several people were enjoying an afternoon beer underneath the patio umbrellas.  It's now the headquarters of the Ljubljana Summer Festival; one of the former courtyards has been converted into an excellent performance space with a 2000-person capacity.

Heading north along Vegova ulica, I passed the buildings of the Universa v Ljubljani, the town's university and the nation's premier institution of higher learning.  Ljubljana is a university town, and the population swells by over 10% when school is in session.  Founded in 1919, the university offers 130 undergraduate and 110 graduate programs.  

Vegova ulica ends at Kongresi trg, named in honor of the 1821 conference held in the city by the Holy Alliance (Austria, Naples, Prussia and Russia).  The park has a wonderful gazebo on its northwestern edge, and there were a few people enjoying their Saturday afternoon here.  There are two important buildings on the square.  First, on the southeastern corner is the Filharmonica, home to the city's philharmonic orchestra.  The group was founded in 1701 as the Academia Philharmonicorum.  The group has resided in this building since it was constructed in 1891.  A number of well-known composers and conductors have worked with the orchestra, including Gustav Mahler, who was the resident conductor for the 1881-1882 season.  Second is the Baroque, and rather ugly, Ursuline Church of the Holy Trinity.  The church was built between 1646 and 1660, but given its Baroque style somewhat later.  The church was closed so I wasn't able to see the inside.

Heading northeast, the last square I visited on the west bank was Prešernov trg, named in honor of the great Slovenian author and lawyer Dr. France Prešeren.  One of his poems, Zdravljica, became the national anthem.  The square is dominated by a statue of him, designed in 1905 by architect Maks Fubianai and Sculptor Ivan Zajc.  I passed through this square a number of times and it always seems to have some type of activity.  On the northern edge is the pink-colored Franciscan Church of the Annunication.  The church is visible from most points in the city and serves as a central landmark.  

Also on the square are a number of smaller, but important, buildings: the Central Pharmacy (at Prešernov 5), which hosted an intellectuals café in the 19^th c. CE and the Urbanc building at the corner of Trubarjeva cesta and Miklošiceva cesta.  The later is now the Centromerkur department store.

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