About Slovenia

Slovenia combines remarkable beauty, sprawling forests, traditional crafts and ancient monuments with modern architecture and a cutting-edge arts and cultural life. This section looks at the long history of this country, charting its journey from Roman times to the third millennium, showcasing its land and peoples as well as its political, economic and cultural structures. Please, browse through the chapters on Slovene geography and topography, history, government, economy, population, language, religion, society and education.

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Geography and topography

Slovenia stretches between the Alps, the Adriatic and the Pannonian Plain, covering an area of 20,273 square kilometres. With Austria to the north, Italy to the west, Hungary to the east and Croatia to the south, Slovenia has always been a crossroads of trans-European routes. The port of Koper is a unique Central European sea gateway; the roads and the railway (which as early as 1857 connected Vienna and Trieste) link the Danube region with the Mediterranean, whilst north west-south east connections link Central Europe with the Balkans.

The largest part of Slovenia is taken up by the Alps, with several river sources and waterfalls and numerous endemic species of flora and Alpine fauna. 47.3 per cent of the country's population lives in the pre-Alpine hills and valleys. The Alpine region stretches over much of the territory in the northern half of Slovenia, and includes Mount Triglav (2,864 metres high), a large protected natural area of 83,807 hectares, and the Ljubljana and Celje basins, which rank among the most densely-populated parts of Slovenia. Slovenia is the third most forested country in Europe, with 58 per cent of its land area covered by woods and forests. It is also here that the Adriatic reaches deepest into Central Europe and exerts its climatic influence over 8.6 per cent of the country’s territory, resulting in a vine-growing and fruit-cultivating hinterland. In the lower Mediterranean part of Slovenia, the limestone landscape phenomena - numerous karst sinkholes and swallow holes and more than 1,000 caves and chasms - gave the name to the branch of science known as 'karstology'. In the south of Slovenia there is the cool and damp Dinaric, a north-eastern section of the Dinaric Alps which covers 28.1 per cent of Slovene territory. This is the most forested part of the country with plenty of game, and consists of the Cerknica Intermittent Lake (its waters disappear in the Spring) and the Postojna karst cave of 19.5 kilometres. Finally there is the Pannonian region in the east (accounting for 21.2 per cent of territory), the most fertile farmland in Slovenia, rich with vineyards and thermal and mineral waters.

The country's geographical diversity results in several different types of climates in Slovenia: continental, Alpine and Mediterranean. Approximately 11 per cent of the Slovene countryside is protected by legislation as natural heritage, the largest area being the Triglav National Park with its surface area of 848 square kilometres. The Škocjan caves were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986, and the Sečovlje Salt Pans and Cerknica Lake are included on the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. Slovenia is also home to more than 3,200 plant species and 15,000 animal species, and is one of the few countries in Europe with a stable and vital brown bear population.

=Regions

When speaking of the separate areas of Slovenia, regional names are more commonly used than geographical ones, however it is very hard to define the exact borders between them. Generally, Gorenjska (Upper Carniola) stretches from the centre up into the north and north west of the country, Štajerska (Styria) and Prekmurje (the Mura River region) extend towards Hungary in the east, Koroška (Carinthia) follows the Drava river in the north east, Notranjska (Inner Carniola) is located in the south west, Dolenjska (Lower Carniola) stretches from the centre towards the south, Bela Krajina (White Carniola) runs along the Croatian border in the south and Primorska (the coast and its hinterland along the Italian border) is situated in the west. Gorenjska is mainly Alpine and Primorska Mediterranean, but Štajerska reaches into the Pannonian Plain, and Notranjska into both Dinaric and Mediterranean types of landscape.

These regions have served as guidelines for the statistical division of Slovenia into 12 regions that are used for the purposes of the Culture.si portal. However, the website also previews the introduction of 14 districts/regions with effect from 1 January 2009, the two additional regions being Savinjsko-Šaleška in northern Slovenia and Spodnjepodravska in eastern Slovenia.

Sources

• National Statistics Office website
• Facts about Slovenia, Government Communication Office, Ljubljana (last update June 2007)
• Discover Slovenia, Cankarjeva založba, Ljubljana (1996)
• Encyclopedia Slovenia