A replica of the tower was made by the conservator-restoration specialist team of the National Museum of Slovenia from pieces of sheet metal, equal to those used by the priest Jakob Aljaž who constructed the tower at the summit of Triglav 120 years ago. Foto: MFFD
A replica of the tower was made by the conservator-restoration specialist team of the National Museum of Slovenia from pieces of sheet metal, equal to those used by the priest Jakob Aljaž who constructed the tower at the summit of Triglav 120 years ago. Foto: MFFD

The central exhibit piece of the exhibition is a replica of the tower made by the conservator-restoration specialist team of the National Museum of Slovenia, made of pieces of sheet metal equal to those used by the priest Jakob Aljaž. Aljaž constructed the tower at the summit of Triglav in August 1895. Planet Tuš Kranj decided to host the exhibition until April 21 in order to bring this national symbol closer to all generations. After this date the exhibition, which was prepared last year, will be moved to their shopping centres in Celje, Maribor, Ljubljana, and Koper.

Irreplaceable symbol of Slovenia
The Aljaž Tower, still today representing the pride of the Slovenian nation, has been proclaimed a cultural monument of national importance in 1999, as an exceptional landscape motive, and irreplaceable symbol of Slovenia. Standing on the exposed summit, it has been defying the elements and the human factor for 120 years, and is in constant need of repair.

"The story of the tower on the summit of the Triglav mountain is unique both in the Alps, and probably in the whole world," claims the co-author of the exhibition, and head of the Conservation and Restoration Department of the National museum of Slovenia Gorazd Lemajič. He believes that we must act responsibly in order to keep the story alive.

He warned that climbing on the tower, and similar pranks performed by the visitors to the Triglav mountain accelerate its decay. The Mountaineering Association of Slovenia is in charge of its regular maintenance, and a restoration-conservation plan for the tower is being prepared which would permit the original tower to endure on the summit of our highest mountain for another 120 years.

The general secretary of the Mountaineering Association of Slovenia Matej Planko at that opportunity stressed the importance of careful management, and maintenance according to professional recommendations. The same attention should be paid to suitable maintenance of marked mountaineering trails for safer mountaineering.

A. K.
Translated by G. K.