Publish Date: 29.10.2019

Category: News from the University

This year the University of Ljubljana is celebrating its centenary. The University’s birthday is considered to be 3 December, when the first lecture in the Slovenian language was given in the Chamber Hall (Zbornična dvorana) of the University Rector’s Office by Fran Ramovš. Almost a hundred years later, the Rector of the University of Ljubljana, Prof. Dr Igor Papič, and the Dean of the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts, Prof. Dr Roman Kuhar, unveiled a bust of Dr Fran Ramovš in the Chamber Hall.

The first lecture at the University of Ljubljana was at the same time the first lecture at the then Faculty of Arts. “The Faculty of Arts is an important member institution of the University of Ljubljana, as it was one of the five founding members, moreover it has also been the main guardian of the Slovenian language both at the University and in society in general,” said University of Ljubljana Rector Prof. Dr Igor Papič at the unveiling. “Since its actual founding in 1919, Slovenian has been the official language at the University of Ljubljana, and I am certain that it will remain so,” said the Rector, adding that this does not mean that it should not be able to use other languages.

It was indeed the lecture given by Dr Fran Ramovš that laid the foundation for higher education in the Slovenian language. “In his greeting to the then students Ramovš stated that on that day we were stepping into a new life, and ‘our nation is entering into history, from which no one will ever erase us again’. He was right. In the past hundred years, the University of Ljubljana and with it the Faculty of Arts have played a key part in determining the cultural, social, political and also spiritual development of this country. The centenary is therefore an opportunity to pay homage to this venerable history and, as Ramovš said, the ‘centuries-long dreams’ of a Slovenian university. Through today’s installing of the bust of Ramovš, we are honouring him and the other first key figures of our university. Without their bold hopes and visions amid the charred ruins of the First World War, we would not be celebrating the centenary of the university today. It would most probably have taken several more decades to achieve it,” said Dean of the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts, Prof. Dr Roman Kuhar, on the unveiling of the bust.

The photos below were taken by Foto studio Nora, d.o.o.