The Archives of the Republic of Slovenia has been operating at its new location at Poljanska Street 40 since the end of October 2024. Its new renovated and expanded facility provides 6,300 m² net of floor space. It accommodates offices for archivists, workshops and laboratories, archival reading room and other spaces for our visitors, library and repository for part of our archival holdings. The new facility will now be home to all archival employees, who before that had their offices in two separate locations.

By moving into the new facility, the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia will be able to optimize the organizational, functional, professional, and cost aspect of its work, ensure better protection and accessibility of archival records kept as Slovenian national cultural heritage, and at the same time considerably improve the working conditions for those employed at the Archives of RS as well as for those visiting it.

A long journey to our new archival building

On September 12, 1962, the American President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous speech titled We choose to go to the Moon at the Rice University in Houston. In his speech, he introduced the public to the bold plan to land a man on the Moon by 1970. »We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.

On November 7, 1994, thirty years ago, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia decided that the so-called Home Guard Barracks along the Poljanska Street (together with the land to be used for subsequent extension of the facility to accommodate archival repositories) would be designated for the needs of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian Restoration Centre.

Even though constant effort was put into it, the investment failed to move much further during the 1990s, despite the prediction stated in the original plans that the renovation of the complex would be finished by 1998. Instead, not even a building permit was obtained until 1999. The then director of the Archives of RS, Vladimir Žumer, optimistically stated on numerous occasions: »just a little bit longer and we’ll move to Roška Street«. The employees even began to view the plans to choose their new offices.

By 2006, apart from the western wing, which belonged to the Restoration Centre of the RS, only the eastern wing on Kapusova Street had been renovated to serve as repository for the Archives. The northern (central) wing along the Poljanska Street, which was intended to eventually house the Archives of RS’s offices, gradually fell into disrepair, despite the management’s continuing effort to move things along. 

In May 2013, the Ministry of Culture and the Archives of RS agreed in principle that a thorough renovation of the central wing would allow the relocation of all the Archives' administrative offices and public programmes, leaving only repositories at the former Zvezdarska Street 1 location. A phased renovation of the building was agreed upon; the first phase would involve the renovation and expansion of the central wing, and subsequent phases would allow for the construction of repositories along the southern edge of the complex as well as a functional connection of all the wings.   

The project brief was completed in the autumn of 2013. In 2014 and 2015, in coordination with the conservation service, several versions of programme reviews and the conceptual design were prepared, the latter being used as a basis for the compilation of all project documentation between 2016 and 2018. The building permit was obtained in July 2017.

The renovation of the building complex was included in the National Programme for Culture, signifying that the state and the ministry recognized the importance of the new facility for further operation of the state archives. Another four years passed until October 2021, when the investment was finally included in the Development Programs Plan and the funds needed for the beginning of the construction were secured in the state budget. The contract with the contractor selected through a public tender was signed in March 2022. If the journey up to this point lasted three decades, the rest of the story unfolded fairly quickly. By the end of April 2024, the construction work was completed, a use permit was obtained, and on June 2024 the Archives of RS took over the building for use.

The building and the carrying out of construction, craftwork and installation work lasted just over two years.

For those of us who do not engage daily in renovation constructions, the process was a challenging one, and one that took a lot of time, sleep, and nerves. It didn't always go smoothly, and many coordination meetings held on Mondays at the construction site office container reminded me of the scenes from the cult movie »12 Angry Men«. However, we all seemed to be aware that the reason why we were sitting at the meeting was to solve the problems, challenges, and disagreements, and complete the project to the satisfaction of everyone«, stresses Dr. Andrej Nared.

Official opening of the new facility

The opening of the new building of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia at Poljanska Street took place on Friday, November 15, 2024. The event was attended by the Slovenian Minister of Culture, Dr. Asta Vrečko, and the Director of the Archives of RS, Dr. Andrej Nared, as well as the Minister of Public Administration, Franc Props, MA, the State Secretaries at the Ministry of Culture Marko Rusjan, MA and Matevž Čelik Vidmar, and many other distinguished quests.

The key speakers at the opening, Dr. Andrej Nared, Director of the Archives of RS, Dr. Aleš Gabrič, historian and President of the Slovenian Society, and Dr. Asta Vrečko, Minister of Culture, all stressed the importance of the newly acquired facility for the Slovenian state archive and for the Slovenian public archival service in general.

Minister of Culture, Dr. Asta Vrečko: »Today's ceremonial opening of the new building of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia at Poljanska Street opened a new chapter for our largest archive, the central archival institution in Slovenia, which keeps and preserves the foundations of our statehood and history. This step ensures modern, representative, and suitable spaces for archival records, for those employed at the Archives of RS, as well as for those visiting it. The Archives of RS has continuously been striving for such new facility since the mid-1990s. Archives are guardians of our memory, keepers of our past for our future. During this term, we are dedicating special attention to archives. In addition to this renovation for the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, we have also completed challenging construction of the Prekmurje branch office of the Regional Archives Maribor in Murska Sobota. With the help of the funds from the flood relief fund, we are planning to build five regional repositories for the archives, all of which are state institutions. We are also systemically addressing the issue of the shortage of archival jobs, as well as seeking possibilities for the construction of new premises for the rest of the Slovenian archives, which in the past were unfortunately often overlooked. Today, we are not only opening the renovated building of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, our central state archive, but we are also opening a new chapter in our treatment of archival records. Our attitude to archives also reflects the attitude of the state to our past and our own history”.  

Acknowledgements by the Director of the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia at the opening of the new facility

Less than seven years passed from Kennedy's speech to the Apollo 11 landing on the moon, covering a distance of 384,400 km. There is less than 2 km from Zvezdarska Street to the location of our new archival building, but it took us 30 years to cover that distance. It would have taken even longer than that, had it not been for the persistent Dr. Bojan Cvelfar, who had been appointed the Director of the Archives of RS a decade ago, and if the stars hadn't finally aligned in favour of the Archives located on Zvezdarska (Stars) Street. 

Allow me, therefore, to express my sincere thanks, first and foremost to the Ministry of Culture, its current and previous ministers and administration that ensured the funds and the support needed for successful completion of this project. Madam Minister, once again my sincere thanks to you and your colleagues! I am very pleased that here with us today are also some of the former ministers of culture, Mr. Simoniti, Mr. Peršak and Mr. Školjč, who all made their contribution to the project during their terms in the office. Credit for the smooth running of the operative side of things goes to a number of other colleagues at the Ministry of Culture, especially to Špela Cizelj Grilc and Saša Rudolf from the financial department, and to Miroslav Benulič from the investment department.  

Thank you also to the project designers Maksim Sešel and Ana Martina Podgoršek of the Komunaprojekt bureau. The conceptual design for the renovation and the interior design plans were created by Jurij Megušar from Ekonova and API arhitekti. The construction was overseen by Gea Consult company and its head supervisor Jože Misson and his team, as well as by Tone Vidic from GTS inženiring. 

The main contractor was Makro 5 Gradnje and its numerous subcontractors. I wish to state here that despite occasional disagreements or different viewing of the same issues, mostly about finances or taking responsibility for minor errors, we have had a very professional collaboration with the team managing the operative side of the construction process. Many thanks to Alen Lulić, Senad Omeragić, Damir Novak, Dušan Žejn, and Mirzet Šabić.

My sincere thanks also go to those employed at the Restoration Centre, Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, who were very understanding when we brought a construction site literally at their doorstep for two long years. We seem to be destined to be good neighbours and I trust we will continue to cooperate in the future as well.

Special thanks go to companies Trevis and Lesnina MG oprema and to Marko Kac and Iztok Miklavžin and their teams for excellent collaboration in the supply and installation of interior furnishing (they delivered and installed over 2600 items). Thank you also to companies Mikrografija, Rabim, and Monolit which from September to October 2024 managed to move five kilometres of archival records, tens of complicated appliances and almost a thousand moving boxes, computer equipment and other personal items of the employees.  

My warmest thanks also go to my archival colleagues; those who believed in the project as well as those who perhaps did not. A big thanks to all who during the planning, construction and moving did your best to help. I firmly believe that we will soon overcome all the teething problems in our large new building and go on to feel at home in it. After all, we have only built a structure – a body of concrete, iron, brick, wood, and gypsum boards. We now have to give this body a substance, atmosphere, and a soul. The saying “The archive is its people” holds true here as well.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank two gentlemen without whom today's event would not have been possible. My predecessor, Bojan Cvelfar, just days after being appointed Director in May 2013, called the first meeting that sent the foundation stone rolling toward Poljanska Street. However, it did not roll on its own, as the obstacle-filled path often steeply ascended. And it is precisely then that Bojan demonstrated most of his persistence and good sense. When he left the Archives of RS in the middle of the last year, most of the work and responsibility fell on the shoulders of my deputy, Gregor Jenuš. Although having no previous experience with this building, he tackled challenging construction work, technical dilemmas, and financial issues, as well as supervised the preparation of the interior design plans and its subsequent installation.

So, three decades after the initial promises and government decisions were made, the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia has finally received its new much-needed new archival building, which is going to house all archival employees under one roof for the first time since 1990. This marks the end of an important chapter in the history of the Slovenian state archive, which next year will celebrate its 80th anniversary of operating as an independent institution. That is why today I am filled with joy, satisfaction, and pride that, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, we have succeeded in acquiring these beautiful, modern, and functional premises that I believe the Slovenian national archive deserves.

I also hope that these new premises can be understood as a brighter reflection of the Slovenian state’s and society’s regard for our archival heritage, and that in addition to archival buildings that were built this year (our own and the branch of the Regional Archives Maribor in Murska Sobota), many new investments into archival infrastructure will soon follow. Issues with the lack of space in some of the regional archives are truly becoming critical.

And finally, let me conclude my speech in a slightly »astronautic« spirit. Building this new archival building might have been a small step for a construction company, but it was a giant leap for Slovenian archival science. We succeeded not because it was easy, but because it was hard.