Housed in Brežice Castle, the Posavje Museum is one of provincial Slovenia’s richest museums, particularly for its archaeological and ethnographic collections – and for its stunning fresco-filled Knights’ Hall.
From the courtyard, ascend the staircase; its walls and ceiling are illustrated with Greek gods, the four Evangelists and the coat of arms of the Attems family, who owned the castle for 250 years. Rooms on the 2nd floor feature archaeological exhibits; look out for the 7th-century-BC bronze horse bridle and the Celtic and Roman jewellery. In the ethnographic rooms, along with the details of local winemaking, flax weaving and master pottery, there is a strange beehive in the shape of a soldier from the early 1800s.
Rooms on the 1st floor cover life in the Posavje region in the 19th century and during the two world wars, with special emphasis on the deportation of Slovenes by the Germans during WWII. There are also galleries of religious artworks and more contemporary pieces.
The museum’s real crowd-pleaser is the Knights’ Hall (Viteška Dvorana), an Italian baroque masterpiece where everything except the floor is painted with landscapes, classical gods, heroes, allegories and muses. Concerts and events are sometimes held here.