Kamnik
Rudolf Maister was born on 29 March 1874 at Šutna 16 in Kamnik. Passers-by are alerted to this fact by the memorial plaque on the house from 1938 and the General’s silhouette next to the main entrance. On 23 November 2013, a museum opened in his renovated birth house (a unit of the Intermunicipal Museum Kamnik). It houses a permanent exhibition, an engaging tale of Maister’s life and work, which is regularly supplemented by temporary exhibitions.
The events in Maister’s house, as the locals like to call it, are made even livelier by Maister’s evenings, where various lecturers participate, as do the students of Rudolf Maister Grammar and Secondary School Kamnik, who are daily reminded of the great man by the bust of him that stands in front of their school.
The fact that Kamnik is tightly intertwined with its famous compatriot is made clear by his honorary citizen certificate from 1924, Maister’s bridge over the Kamniška Bistrica from 1999, Maistrova ulica (Maister Street) right behind it and a statue of the general at Graben from 1970 by the sculptor Anton Sigulin, which is the first public monument in Slovenia dedicated to Maister. Adjacent to the statue is the bar Pr’ Maistru, where you can even enjoy the general’s own hoppy brew.
Word of the great man from below the Kamnik-Savinja Alps who defended Slovenia’s borders is also spread by the General Maister Society Kamnik. On the General’s birthday, which has been a municipal holiday since 1995, and on the national holiday Rudolf Maister Day, on the 23rd of November, the people of Kamnik remember their compatriot at various ceremonies.
