Collections of the Idrija Municipal Museum
More than museum 23,000 items are arranged in 11 collections. We’ve picked the largest, the smallest, the oldest and the most interesting ones for you. We invite you to find them in our exhibitions!
The Geological Collection
The Geological Collection of the Idrija Municipal Museum consists of 2,900 units and slightly more than 700 are exhibited in the permanent exhibition called “Five Centuries of the Mercury Mine and the Town of Idrija”. The collection contains: rocks, fossils and minerals from ore deposits in Idrija mine, the Idrija and Cerkno regions and elsewhere. Ores have a special place in the collection, representing different ways of mineralisation of the Idrija basin, and thus the formation of the Idrija mercury deposit.
The specimens of some rare cinnabar ores (so-called karoli-ore) and unique sedimentary ores give the collection wider international significance. The Geological Collection of the Idrija Municipal Museum is the result of the work of individual amateur collectors, museum staff and planned work of geologists, employees of the Idrija Mercury Mine. It is evidence of the 160-year systematic researching of the Idrija ore deposits and surroundings, and also indirect research of 500 years of mining heritage of Idrija.
