A large iron plaque in the pavement of Breg, outside the Zois Apartments, near the Žiga Zois bust, WMT638 (
visit link) Ljubljana.
The plaque, in both Slovene and English tells us:
"This palace was built at the site of three houses
in 1798 by Žiga Zois, the Baron of Edelstein, who was the initiator and promoter of the Sloveni-
an literary and cultural revival. In front of the palace was the River Fort, on the other side,
along the city walls and trenches, the Baron created a botanical garden. | Žiga Zois was born
in Trieste in 1747 to trader Michelangelo Zois and Ivana Kaplis, a well-known Slovenian family in
the iron industry. on 1780, the Baron founded the Enlightenment Circle, which was a gathering
place for Slovenian literary revivalists and scholars. He financially supported their work
and the printing of their books. He also supported the work of the Carniolian Agricultural
Company, which engaged in efforts to modernize the economy. The Baron owned ironworks in
Jesenice, Javornik, Mojstrana, Bohinjska Bistrica and Stara Fuzina and also a ceramic facto-
ry in Ljubljana. With his technical knowledge he advised the authorities on the development
of the iron industry, on navigation on the Sava and Ljubljanica rivers, and on the drainage of
Ljubljana's marsh. He died in Ljubljana on 10th Novenber 1819. | Baron Žiga Zois was a natural-
ist, geologist and minerologist, a member of numerous scientific associations in Europe and the
Slovenian Philharmonic Society. His collection of around 5,000 minerals was the basis for the
establishment of the Provincial Museum of Carniola. In this house the famous Slovenian writ-
ers Anton Tomaz Linhart, Jurij Jareij, Valentin Vodnik and Jernij Kopitar spent time with Žiga
Zois. In 1813, Joseph Fouche, the last governor of the Illyrian provinces, statesman and police
minister from the time of the French Revolution to Napoleon II, was living in Zois's house, and
during the congress of the Holy Alliance in 1821, the Austrian foreign minister Klemens Wenzel
von Metternich also stayed there. Later the palace regularly sheltered Slovenian artists."