Iron safe

Fifteen years ago the restoration department of the Koper Regional Museum restored the large iron safe that for a decade had adorned the main entrance to what was then Banka Koper on Koper’s Pristaniška Ulica. It is currently on display in the entrance hall of the Koper Regional Museum.
Dating from the seventeenth or eighteenth century, this safe came to the museum from the former Austrian municipal offices in the city’s main square, which earlier housed the Monte di Pietà, the Venetian charitable pawnbroking institution. Tradition has it that it originally came from Castel Leone, the fortification that once stood on the causeway opposite the Muda Gate. The fortification lay 93 paces from the Muda Gate and straddled the road (three paces and one foot wide) that connected Koper to the mainland in the days when it was still an island.
The Venetian safes or strongboxes that survive to the present day once represented an important part of the equipment of civic institutions. They were used to store valuables including money, gold, documents and securities. They were massive objects, plated in iron both inside and out. The gap between the iron plates was filled with solid wood (usually oak). They were fitted with several special locks and in most cases a keyholder would only have the key to one of the locks, meaning that the safe could only be unlocked by all the keyholders together. This was the only way to prevent unauthorised opening of the safe, while at the same time its massive construction ensured it was safe from burglars.