Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum

Located in the Gabrielli Palace on the waterfront, the Sergej Mašera Maritime Museum is named in honour of a Slovenian naval commander whose ship was blown up off the Croatian coast in WWI. The mid-19th-century palace, with its lovely moulded ceilings, parquet floors and marble staircase, is worth a visit in itself.

The museum's excellent exhibits focus on sea, sailing and salt-making - three things that have been crucial to Piran's development over the centuries. The salt pans at Sečovlje, southeast of Portorož, get most of the attention on the ground floor. There are some old photographs showing salt workers going about their duties in coolie-like straw hats, as well as a wind-powered salt pump and little wooden weights in the form of circles and diamonds that were used to weigh salt during the Venetian Republic.

The antique model ships upstairs are very fine (especially the 17th-century galleon and 18th-century corvette); other rooms are filled with old figureheads and weapons, including some very lethal-looking blunderbusses. The folk paintings are ex-voto offerings that were placed by sailors on the altar of the pilgrimage church at Strunjan for protection against shipwreck.