Tag Archives: History

A prehistoric settlement situated at an altitude of 750 metres has been discovered in the east of the country in what archaeologists say is a unique site in Europe.  The site, containing the remains of ceramics from the Early Iron Age, has been stumbled upon by a hiker on a steep slope of Donačka Gora, a 884-metre peak above Rogatec ...

The railroad between Jesenice and Nova Gorica – known as the Bohinj Railway – takes travelers through Alpine valleys, past glacial lakes and deep forests, and through a long tunnel beneath the snow-capped peaks of the Julian Alps. Built between 1900 and 1904, it was a major transportation undertaking designed to connect Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, along ...

Most Slovenians know Ljubno as a small village by the side of the main freeway running between Ljubljana and northwestern Slovenia. Like many other settlements in the Upper Carniola province, Ljubno consists of picturesque Alpine-style homes scattered on a local hill. In years gone by, however, Ljubno was known far and wide for a tradition that provided a livelihood to ...

Sveta Gora, a mountaintop monastery above the town of Nova Gorica, is one of several well-known pilgrimage sites in Slovenia. However, it stands apart not just because of its spectacular location overlooking much of western Slovenia but also because of its unusually turbulent history. A medieval church that once stood on the site was burned down by the Turks. Sveta ...

Novo Mesto, the most important town in Slovenia’s Dolenjska region, is different than most other towns its size. Instead of emerging organically, from a village that increased in size through the ages, its creation was the result of an official decree. Eventually, it acquired the reputation as a center of the Slovenian avant-garde, and is now a symbol of prosperity ...

Churches are among the most common sights in Slovenia; they add a picturesque note to towns, the tops of remote hills, and everywhere in between. Many of these churches are also the home of a musical tradition that has been passed on from generation to generation. The exact origin of Slovenian bell chiming – known as “pritrkovanje” – is unknown, ...

Miklavž “Miki” Muster, born in 1925, became one of Slovenia’s most beloved cartoonists and animators. It all began when he first saw the animated classic Snow White. He fell in love with the beauty of the film and began to dream of one day becoming a Disney animator. Muster graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana with a ...

In the early 19th century, Ljubljana was a small Hapsburg town of around 20,000 people. For a few months in 1821, however, heads of state from around Europe briefly made Ljubljana the center of international politics and diplomacy. Between January and May of that year, Ljubljana was the venue for the second congress of the Holy Alliance, which united most ...

Slovenia’s southern province of Bela Krajina is known as a land of sun-drenched vineyards and birch forests. It is also the home of a local delicacy whose origins date back to migrations from the Western Balkans. The dish is known as “Belokranjska pogača” and is essentially a type of flatbread topped with a layer of caraway, eggs, and sea salt. ...

In an era when few ventured abroad, Alma Karlin was a globetrotter. Proficient in eight languages, she possessed a profound drive to explore different cultures and to see the world in all of its diversity. Always an independent thinker, she paid for her iconoclastic nature by dying as a poor, marginalized woman. Born into a Slovenian family in the town ...