Slovenia's landmarks, icons and historical milestones encapsulated in scale models and dioramas have been put on display at a museum in Šenčur, a small town near the northwestern city of Kranj.

The Slovenia in Miniature Museum, arguably the first such in the country, will open to the general public on 25 January, but is already welcoming school groups.

The collection opens on the ground floor with models showing human evolution, the mammoth at Nevlje near Kamnik and the life of pre-historic pile dwellers.

Visitors can also see the birthplaces of poet France Prešeren (1800-1849) and writer Ivan Cankar (1876-1918), the Franja Partisan Hospital, the Nazi labour camp below Ljubelj mountain pass, and a 1991 ceremony at which Slovenia declared independence.

The first floor features models recounting Slovenia's history from the Roman times all the way to independence with a miniature train running between them.

The models depict the literary hero Martin Krpan, Mount Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, the Solkan railway bridge, the world's largest stone bridge, as well as scenes from the WWI Isonzo Front, the interwar period, WWII, the post-war period, and accession to the EU.

The models have been made by Igor Grabnar, who put some 50,000 hours of work into them with the help of assistants. He has been making scale models of historic milestones since 2012.

He has collaborated with experts to ensure his depiction of events is as accurate as possible. In making a diorama of pile dwellings, he worked with Anton Velušček, head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU).

Speaking at the presentation of the museum on 15 January, Velušček said the diorama captures a moment 5,200 years ago, noting that the point of a diorama is to show life in a moment in time.

"It's essentially a photograph, but in three dimensions," he explained. Such representations are becoming increasingly popular, he said, describing Grabnar as a trailblazer in this field in Slovenia.

The museum programme is headed by Bine Logar, who runs scale modelling workshops at schools. Workshops will also be held at the museum.

Šenčur Mayor Ciril Kozjek believes the museum will turn into a tourist attraction. He would like Grabnar to make a model of Šenčur as well, which Grabnar promised to do.

He is currently half way through making a scale model of Celje Castle. He says the only limit is that the museum will run out of space.