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Local name: Center vesoljskih tehnologij Hermana Potočnika Noordunga
Vitanje, Slovenia
Maribor & Styria
Center Noordung is Slovenia's space centre, a stack of concrete rings in a village of fewer than a thousand people. The shape follows the rotating habitation wheel Herman Potočnik Noordung designed in 1928 for a space station in geostationary orbit. Inside, seven exhibitions run from early sky-watching to the Copernicus satellites watching the Earth, and visitors can fly a simulator, take a virtual walk on the International Space Station or talk to a humanoid robot. The operator sells a combined ticket with the Žiče Charterhouse, which turns a short village stop into a full day.

Plan Your Visit

Highlights

Award-winning contemporary architecture
Hands-on interactive exhibits
Rooftop panorama over the town
Virtual reality experience
Earth observation and satellites
Flight simulator experience
Humanoid robots and robotics
Space travel pioneer heritage

Safety Notes

!Sloping exhibition floor
!Stairs inside
!Supervise children
!Use handrails where available

Photo Tip

The building is the strongest subject, and it reads best from the road below rather than the car park, where the stacked concrete rings separate into distinct bands against the village roofs. Low, angled light early or late in the day gives the cleanest separation. The roof terrace adds the widest view over Vitanje toward Pohorje.

Before You Go

!Best combined with nearby attraction
!Check opening hours
!Hands-on interactive exhibits
!Indoor visit
!Last entry one hour before closing
!Outdoor areas nearby
!Stairs inside
!Ticket required

Access & Parking

Detailed access info in Plan Your Visit ↑
Center Noordung stands on the main street through Vitanje, with free parking in front of the building, including four marked disabled bays and two electric-vehicle charging points. Two further free car parks in the village take the overflow. The intercity bus stop is in front of the Center, so arriving without a car is possible. The main entrance is level, and a lift serves the basement and first floor. Inside, the exhibition route follows a continuous 23° concrete incline.

Interesting Facts

1
A blueprint turned into a building
Center Noordung is a drawing made into architecture. Its interlocking concrete rings echo the rotating habitation wheel that Herman Potočnik Noordung designed in 1928 as the living quarters of a three-part geostationary space station, alongside a power station and an observatory. The wheel was meant to turn, generating artificial gravity by centrifugal force. The station was never built, but the design became a foundational reference for later space-station concepts, and the building in Vitanje is the closest thing to seeing it stand.
2
Four rival studios who refused to compete
Four of Slovenia's leading architecture practices were invited to compete for the commission and decided instead to design it together, forming the Architectural Union for Vitanje. Bevk Perović, Dekleva Gregorič, OFIS and SADAR+VUGA collaborated on the project. The completed building received Slovenia's 2013 Plečnik Award and the 2013 Golden Pencil for Outstanding Realisation.
3
Why a space centre stands in a village
Herman Potočnik was born in Pula in 1892 and died in Vienna in 1929 at the age of thirty-six, and he never lived in Vitanje. The connection runs through his mother's family: her father, the Maribor wine merchant and local councillor Jožef Kokošinek, was born here. That single thread was enough for the village to open a memorial room in December 2006, in the house where his grandfather had worked, and it grew over the following decade into the centre standing today.
4
One book, one hundred hand-drawn illustrations
Potočnik published exactly one book, and it changed how engineers thought about spaceflight. Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums — der Raketen-Motor reached Berlin bookshops at the end of 1928, though the publisher printed 1929 on the title page to keep it looking new through the following year. In 188 pages and 100 hand-drawn illustrations he set out a complete plan for reaching space and staying there. The Center displays a collection of translations and editions, including an original German first edition.
5
The man who worked out where to park a space station
Potočnik placed his station in a geostationary orbit roughly 35,900 kilometres above the equator, where it would circle the Earth once a day and hold its position above a fixed point on the ground. He described using orbiting craft for detailed observation of the surface, and argued that the special conditions of space would be uniquely valuable for scientific experiments. He also suggested the orbit could carry a telecommunications relay, seventeen years before Arthur C. Clarke's celebrated 1945 paper.
6
Three owners in fourteen years
The building has changed hands twice since it opened. From 2012 until the end of 2013 it was run by the private KSEVT institute; in 2014 the Municipality of Vitanje took it over as a municipal public institution; and in 2017 a national act converted it into a state public institute co-founded by the Republic of Slovenia and the municipality. A full renovation of the exhibitions opened on 20 February 2019.
7
A Slovenian instrument still flying
One permanent exhibition belongs to Dr Anton Mavretič, the Slovenian engineer who helped develop a scientific instrument carried by both Voyager probes. The spacecraft launched in 1977, crossed the outer solar system and are still transmitting, carrying humanity's message outward into interstellar space. Mavretič donated his archive to Slovenia's National and University Library. For a museum in a village of under a thousand people, it is an unusually direct link to a mission still under way.
8
Seven exhibitions, a library and a circular hall
The Center holds seven permanent exhibitions, running from the earliest human attempts to understand the sky, through Potočnik's own work, to the six families of Copernicus Sentinel satellites now watching the Earth. The ground floor of the same building holds Vitanje's municipal library and a circular hall seating 300, which the municipality uses as its house of culture. A mobile Micro Museum takes a compact version of the story out to schools and events elsewhere.
9
The machines cost extra
Admission covers the exhibitions, Noordung's Observatory, the humanoid robot Vita and a conversation with Noordung AI. The machines are charged separately: an eight-minute virtual walk on the International Space Station, a seven-minute flight in the Electra VR simulator, and five minutes in the Bárány chair — the rotating seat used to train an astronaut's balance organ against the effects of weightlessness.
10
A museum that lets the dog come in
Center Noordung is an unusual thing among indoor museums: a dog-accessible one. Dogs may accompany their owners through every exhibition space, which makes the Center a practical stop for travellers touring Slovenia with a pet.
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Visitor Wisdom

Traveler Insights

Combined public visitor ratings from Google and Tripadvisor. Last verified August 2026.

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4.6
Based on 1,000+ visitor ratings

Quick Facts

Estimated visit time
1–2 h
Best season
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
Walking difficulty
Easy
Family friendly
Yes
Pet friendly
Yes
Entry Fee
Paid
Access type
Direct roadside access
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