Herlah House

The large two-storey building is Baroque in origin. A vault on the courtyard side suggests construction in the 17th century. The courtyard entrance is connected by a passage hall to the main entrance, which is framed by a sandstone portal with simple side ornament. Four smaller, more simply designed stone portals — now somewhat altered — also decorate the façade. The corners are emphasised by slightly projecting façade treatment, and the same device visually separates the ground and upper floors.

Built into the façade is a fragment of an ancient Roman funerary monument in the form of Medusa's head. Above the main entrance is a Gothic corbel, probably brought from the former hospital Church of St Elizabeth.

In 1953 the Celje Historical Society installed a commemorative plaque marking the birthplace of geographer and historian Fran Orožen, the first president of the Slovenian Mountaineering Society.

Fran Orožen, nephew of historian Ignacij Orožen, studied geography and history at the University of Vienna after completing grammar school in Celje. He worked on geography teaching methods and wrote several textbooks for geography and local studies. As a geographer and historian he was especially interested in the mountain world, writing articles and studies that linked mountaineering with Slovenian cultural history. He pioneered a scholarly view of tourism and became the first head of the Central Committee of the Slovenian Mountaineering Society and of the Society of Slovenian Professors. The square where you are standing, Orožnov trg, is named after him and his uncle Ignacij.

The house takes its name from Josip Herlah and his wife, who ran a shop here between the two world wars.