Cene Avguštin and the Development of the town of Radovljica

Cene Avguštin was the first professional museologist in Gorenjska, as well as a protector of cultural heritage and the leading researcher of the urban and architectural development of Slovenian towns.

The statue is the work of one of Avguštin's relatives, the sculptress Tatjana Kostanjevič from Opatija in Croatia, who gifted it to Radovljica.

Cene Avguštin

Cene Avguštin (1923-2010) was born in a house next to Radovljica's old town square. As an art historian, after the second world war he broke new ground in the area of protection of cultural heritage, museology and conservation. He was responsible for the organisation of protection of monuments in Gorenjska, was the first director of Gorenjska Museum in Kranj, and was head of the Kranj Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. He strived to popularise cultural heritage and was a popular lecturer and art critic.

The central theme of his studies and research was the urbanisation and architectural development of Gorenjska's towns and squares, the transformation of bourgeois houses over the centuries, and the study of the artistic and architectural elements of folk architecture in Gorenjska. His research was always closely tied to Radovljica – the town where he was born, lived and died. He devoted more than five decades to his studies and was involved in the restoration of the old town centre and individual monuments and buildings.