With the rising of a new town, a museum was founded in Velenje as to preserve the cultural heritage. The founding document of the Museum of the Slovene coalmines was signed on the 3. November 1957, in order to preserve and present the history of all our coalmines. The museum got its headquarters in the Velenje Castle that was in a bad condition due to the consequences of the war. First the renovation of the building had to be carried out – it was completed in the nineties of the 20th century.
The collection of Slovene coalmines exhibited in 1966 was the first organized collection in the museum. Within the framework of this collection a model of a mine cave was made and visitors could experience the mine atmosphere. The coalmine collection was completed with the mastodon remains found in Škale in 1964. In 1971 the museum got very important works of African art of František Foit and later extended the collection on other areas. The most recent is titled Šaleška dolina valley between the 10th century and the 17th century and represents the every day life of all social classes in the valley.
Today Velenje Museum houses eleven permanent collections. Besides the collections in Velenje castle, the museum also displays Kavčnik homestead in Zavodnj near Šoštanj – an exceptional cultural monument of village architecture – and two memorial rooms in Topolščica and in Graška Gora.
