The Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and in collaboration with the Ptuj Regional Museum – Ormož, invites you to the opening of the exhibition Secrets from the Waters: 1st International Day of Underwater Cultural Heritage.

The exhibition will open on September 22, 2026, at 10 a.m. in the lower courtyard of Ptuj Castle.

On view through November 1, 2026.

Through this exhibition and other events dedicated to underwater heritage, which will take place throughout the country in the coming weeks, we aim to give visitors a sense of what it feels like to be an explorer who, at the bottom of the water, beneath a layer of silt, recognizes an object created by human hands. The moment when, in the poor visibility of the underwater environment, they first glimpse the outline of a sunken object is accompanied by joy and a question—does the object before them reveal a new story from the past?

You are warmly invited.

Jernej Hudolin, Director General of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia

Photo: Remains of wooden piles from the former bridge across the Drava River in Maribor (Photo: Matic Perko, archives of the STIK Group and the Institute for Underwater Archaeology)