Again this year, Ljubljana marked 9 May, the city holiday, with a gala session of the City Council of the City of Ljubljana, where we presented the city's highest recognitions with the Honorary Citizen titles at the top. The titles were awarded to Julijana Žibert and Prof. Janez Koželj.

The title Honorary Citizen was awarded to Julijana Žibert

Julijana Žibert is a sociologist with a university degree who has lived in Ljubljana since 1954. Among her other functions, she was the Director of PTT Ljubljana and Director General of PTT Slovenia. She was also part of the post office management at the time of gaining independence, during which she contributed significantly to the construction of the independent Slovenia, which is why she was also awarded Slovenia 1991 veteran status. During her service, she was also politically active; she served as non-professional Vice-President of the Municipal Assembly (1974-78), facing many tasks and problems in developing Ljubljana. She was particularly active in constructing the Path of Remembrance and Comradeship as a permanent monument to Ljubljana surrounded by barbed-wire fence.
Throughout her service in Ljubljana, Julijana Žibert strove to improve life in Ljubljana in all areas, not only in building the city but also in building relationships between people based on tolerance, understanding and coexistence.

The title Honorary Citizen was awarded to Prof. Janez Koželj

Prof. Janez Koželj is one of the most important Slovenian architects of the last two decades of the 20th and the first two decades of the 21st century. His creative opus ranges from graphic design, architecture and urbanism all the way to large-scale spatial planning, which is always done responsibly and for the benefit of people. He has been the city's chief urban planner for many years, in 2006, he was elected to the City Council on the List of Zoran Janković and was afterwards appointed Deputy Mayor. In 2007, together with a team of colleagues, he outlined a vision for the long-term development of Ljubljana until 2025 and led its implementation for almost two decades. Through his spatial vision, Ljubljana was reborn in three mandates into a lively and well-organised capital city by transforming public spaces in line with the principles and methods of modern and sustainable urban and architectural planning.
During his city architect mandate, Ljubljana received the European Prize for Urban Public Space (2011), became a Europen Green Capital (2016) and won numerous international awards in the fields of urbanism, quality of life, sustainable content and the like. Ljubljana would never have become what it is today without his selfless giving.

The Awards of the City of Ljubljana went to the Catholic Youth Institute, Robert Pešut – Magnifico, Robert Martinčič, MSc, Anton Podobnik and the Waldorf School Ljubljana. The Plaques of the City of Ljubljana were awarded to the Labour Counselling Service Association, Rafko Irgolič, Andrej Razdrih, a group of instructors from the Simulation Centre of the Health Centre Ljubljana, the Spominčica (Forget-Me-Not) – Alzheimer Slovenia – Slovenian Dementia Association, the art history study group Let's get to know our city and country, and Igor Vidmar.

We sincerely congratulate all the winners.

Again this year, we celebrated the city holiday with the traditional march on the Path along the Wire, held from 9 to May 2024.