Introduction

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Soča Front/Isonzo Front

The World War I started with a shot in Sarajevo on 28 June, 1914. Gavrilo Princip a young Bosnian assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austro-Hungary...   more...

Slovenian lands in 16th century

The fighting and survival strengths of Slovenian people were tested to their limits. They emerged as a self-aware people with a literary language. Protestantism was a watershed ... more...

Terra Cognita

In its central European space, Slovenia has maintained a powerful sense of national identity, evident in a highly diversified cultural life, and cultural forms nurtured with long traditions ...

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Freising (Brižinski) Manuscripts

A remarkable historical document, important in establishing the place of Slovenian people and culture within existing European civilization. The Brižinski spomeniki consist of three texts ...

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Contemporary Slovenian Architecture

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Jože Peterkoč

In the decade after his graduation from the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana in 1990, architect Jože Peterkoč (1962) was still highly influenced by prevailing architectural thought ... more...

Ofis Architects

Ofis Arhitekti, was established in 1996 by Rok Oman and Špela Videčnik, both completed graduate studies at London's AA Design Research Laboratory. Their impressive portfolio ... more...

A.Biro

Architecture of Abiro established by architects Miloš Florjaničič (1955) and Matej Blenkuš (1971) significantly marked the space of Slovenian contemporary architecture ... more...

Nande Korpnik / New Architectural Production

Architect Nande Korpnik (1962) was born in Velenje, a city which is a unique example of Slovenian urban planning. The specifics of his environment in his formative years mixed ... more...

Cultural Treasures

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St. Martin Church on Šilentabor

The Church of St. Martin was probably built in the 11th or 12th century. Archaeologists discovered the wall of the original, characteristically Romanesque half-circular apsis. The remnants of the church can now be seen under the floor of the presbytery. The frescoes were painted around 1450. more...

Grad Strmol in Upper Carniola, Slovenia

Picturesquely set against the steep hill Dvorje, Strmol is one of those castles in Upper Carniola, which has throughout retained its Slovenian name. Strmolski knights appeared in the records in the second half of the 13th century...


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Ptuj, the oldest Slovenian city

The first Roman staging post on the Roman Road, it became a city at the time of emperor Trajan, and named Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio.

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Frescoes of Hrastovlje

The eye is assailed by a plethora of images and warm, rich colours, every space and surface aglow with familiar images of Christian iconography more...

Ethnographic Heritage

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The Past Captured in Fashions

Mankind had discovered weaving far back in the history of mankind. Embroidery and embellishment of clothes with a needle was known 

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Slovenian cuisine

There are more than forty distinct cuisines in a country, whose main distinguishing feature is a great variety of land formation, climate, and history. more...

Idrija lace

Bobbin lace-making is a unique phenomenon in Slovenia. It has developed most intensively in the Idrija area, although the skill has always been practiced in other parts of the country ...

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Kurentovanje

Each year, the carnival festival in Ptuj is a celebration of  Kurent. He is an ancient being, recorded in folk-tales of Carinthia.        

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Myths and Legends

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Tales of three rivers
Tales about rivers have a special place in Slovenian tradition. They reflect the fondness the Slovenian people have towards their major rivers and express the gratitude and appreciation for the prosperity they bring to their land. more...

The Other World

In his article Perceptions of Landscapes, Zmago Šmitek speaks of wealth and diversity in the Slovenian folk tradition, of the imagined, dream, fantastic, utopian, fairy-tale places ... more...

Perceptions of landscape

The triad of gods Perun, Veles, and Mokoš are narrowly linked to the characteristics of Slav landscapes. Perun was linked with sky and high mountains, Veles was god of the underground ... more...

Fairies

Vile are mythological beings in south Slavic folklore, incarnation of beauty and power, benevolent friends of sufferers, the dwellers of forests and rivers. Shared by most Slavic cultures ... more...

Slovenian Pantheon

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The Next World

Carantanians believed that there was a world where the departed dead go, deep underground. There is also an upper world, a beautiful garden, in the mountains, a metaphor for paradise. more...

Vodnar / Aquarius

There are few traces left of Vodnar, god of waters in Slovenian tradition, but he lives on in the folk tales as the water man, inhabiting the rivers and lakes of Slovenia, and as St. Christopher, the bread-giver. more...

Pust / Shrovetide Carnival

Pust of Slovenian tales is a Dyonisian figure, appearing in many folktales as the spirit of merriment and wine. The shrovetide festivity is called “pustovanje,”and it celebrates the winter’s end. more...

Vesna

Vesna, the goddess of spring is better known in other Slavic traditions. In Slovenian tradition this is expressed in festivity of Palm Sunday, Flower Sunday in Slovenian and symbolized in “butara,” the Easter sheaf. more...

Natural Heritage

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Ljubljanica, River of Seven Names

The river that rolls lazily through Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenija, is named Ljubljanica when it surfaces on Ljubljansko Barje (Ljubljana Marshes) near Vrhnika, and it keeps that name until it merges with the river Sava.  it was known as Ljubija in Middle Ages. more...

Škocjanske Jame / The Škocjan Caves

World heritage site The Škocjan Caves is a natural phenomenon of global significance, ranking side by side with the Grand Canyon, the Galapagos Islands, and the Mammoth Cave system. more...

Carniolan honey bee and beekeeping

Man and the Carniolan bee are interconnected in Slovenian lands. Beekeeping (čebelarstvo) was exceptionally developed in Slovenia... more...

The Botanical Garden of Ljubljana

The Botanical Garden of Ljubljana is after the National and University Library, Slovenia's oldest educational, scientific and cultural institution, functioning continuously in its present location since its foundation. more...

Notable Slovenes

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Herman Noordnung Potočnik

When Herman Potočnik, a retired captain and construction engineer in the Austro-Hungarian army published his book The Problem of Space Travel - The Rocket Motor, he did it under the pen name Noordung. His true identity remained hidden during his lifetime for reasons that are still a matter for speculation.  more...

Pedro Opeka, the Apostle of Hope

All my life I pondered on the actions of men and women, whom I regarded as exemplary, and at the same time I endeavored to translate these thoughts into actions. That is why the people from the rubbish dump and I don't want to be regarded as heroes, to be admired blessedly by the rest. On the contrary, we wish, that our experience encourages and stimulates towards action.

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Baron Sigismund von Herberstein

An eminent diplomat of the Habsburg Empire in the 16th century, Sigismund (Žiga) von Herberstein (1486-1566) was the first to make use of his knowledge of Slovenian language in his diplomatic career and in research. more...

Anton Janša, Slovene apiarist

Anton Janša: "Among all of God’s creatures there is none as industrious and as useful, and needing less care, nourishment, or costing less than the bee". more...

Arts

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Slovenian impressionists - Ivan Grohar

"It is the motion of an appointed moment which will last as long as the material substance of the painting lasts”. more...

Slovenian impressionists - Matija Jama

Breathtakingly luminous and unsurpassed in conveying the Arcadian character of Slovenian  countryside. more...

Slovenian impressionists - Rihard Jakopič

The painter initiated a temporal and socially organic continuity of Slovene art which permeated the sphere of national consciousness. more...

Slovenian Impressionism

Like Slovenian literature, Impressionism took its place as a contributory force in the cultural development of the Slovenian nation.  more...

History

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TIGR - Anti-fascist Resistance Movement

In 1918, at the end of  WW I, after disintegration of the Austrian Empire, Slovenes of  Primorska region expected to be part of the emerging State of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes...  more...

Slovenian lands in 16th century

The fighting and survival strengths of Slovenian people were tested to their limits. They emerged as a self-aware people with a literary language. Protestantism was a watershed ... more...

Mithraic cult in Slovenian lands

Mithraism was the principal rival of Christianity at a time when there was a strong move towards monotheism throughout the Roman empire. In 2nd and 3rd centuries Ptuj ...

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Glagolitic script and the Slavs

In its conception and as a linguistic tool, glagolica was an amazing achievement - a tool to give power of written word to half the Europe. It was invented to accommodate the complex sound ...

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Landmarks

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Dominkova Homestead

Dominkova Homestead is today more than a museum. Medicinal herbs are growing in the garden. In front of the house they still sow corn, plant garlic and other produce ... more...

Šmit Homestead

The homestead is typical of the lower Pannonian region, built of beams coated on both sides with clay. It is a distinctive regional building style called locally cimprača ... more...

Škratelj House

Škratelj House in Divača was built in the 17th century. An important stopover hostelry, it served all traffic until the construction of the railroad between Vienna and Trieste ... more...

Liznjek Homestead

Liznjek house highlights the well established residential culture of country houses in the Upper Sava Valley during the first half of the 17th century. In the centre of Kranjska gora ... more...