Ljubljana
MGML

Replica of the oldest wooden wheel with an axle for the winner of the 26th Tour of Slovenia

Trophy for the Tour of Slovenia, bicycle race across Slovenia

This year’s winner of the 26th edition of the Tour of Slovenia will also receive a trophy in the shape of the 5200 years old wooden when with an axle, which was found in the Ljubljana Marshes and is now exhibited at the City Museum of Ljubljana. The race’s organisers decided for a novelty this year, as all previous winners in the 25-year history of the Tour of Slovenia will be engraved on the backside of the trophy.

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This unique wheel dates to the time of the pile dwellers and places Ljubljana on the world map of the oldest and most important human innovations. The team from the Institute of Archaeology ZRC SAZU found the wheel in 2002 when gathering wood samples in the Ljubljana Marshes. It was carefully manufactured from tough and hard ash wood, while the axle, which spun alongside the wheel, was made out of oak wood. According to experts, the wheel and the axle were both part of a two-wheeled cart that would be used by the pile dwellers to transport wood from nearby forests. Today the original artefact can be seen at our permanent exhibition Ljubljana. History. City. at the City Museum of Ljubljana.

The Tour of Slovenia trophy was designed by the Head of the Conservation Department at the MGML, Katarina Toman Kracina. It was made with the most advanced 3D printing technique, and its creation almost 50 hours of the most precise and demanding work, done at the Ljubljana-based company INTRI.

Following the print, special dust particles on the basis of a plaster cast of the original wheel, the museum conservator-restorer rigorously painted the replica. Then she refined it and placed the wheel on a Plexiglas trophy base.

The engraving on the Tour of Slovenia trophy was made with gold leaf, each trophy also has its own certificate as its creators wish to bring this story closer to, not just the winner of the Tour of Slovenia, but to the whole world.

Posted: 21. 6. 2019

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