Slovenia, officially the
Republic of Slovenia (), is a
country in southern
Central Europe bordering
Italy to the west, the
Adriatic Sea to the southwest,
Croatia to the south and east,
Hungary to the northeast, and
Austria to the north. The capital of Slovenia is
Ljubljana.
At various points in Slovenia's history, the country has been part of the
Roman Empire, the Duchy of
Carantania (only modern Slovenia's northern part), the
Holy Roman Empire,
Austria-Hungary, the
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929)
between the World Wars, and the
SFR of Yugoslavia from 1945 until gaining independence in 1991. Slovenia is a member of the
European Union, the
Council of Europe and
NATO.
History
Slavic ancestors of the present-day
Slovenians settled in the area in the
sixth century. The Slavic Duchy of
Carantania was formed in the
seventh century. In
745, Carantania lost its independence, being largely subsumed into the
Frankish empire. Many
Slavs converted to Christianity.
The
Freising manuscripts, the earliest surviving written documents in a Slovenian dialect and the first ever Slavic document in
Latin script, were written around
1000. During the
fourteenth century, most of Slovenia's regions passed into ownership of the
Habsburgs whose lands later formed the
Austrian Empire, with
Slovenians inhabiting all or most of the provinces of
Carniola,
Gorizia and Gradisca and parts of the provinces of
Istria,
Carinthia,
Styria, the region of
Prekmurje that belonged to the
Kingdom of Hungary and
Venetian Slovenia which was part of the
Austrian Empire between
1797-
1805 and
1815-
1866. Slovenians also inhabited most of the territory of the
Imperial Free City of
Trieste, although representing the minority of its population.
In
1848, a massive political and popular movement for a
United Slovenia emerged as part of the
Spring of Nations movement within Austria.
During
World War I several fronts were opened between the belligerent countries in Europe. After the Italian attack on Austro-Hungary the south-west front was opened, part of which was also
The Isonzo Front. The name itself indicates that it ran along the river of Isonzo (Italian name for the Soča), with the greatest part on the present territory of Slovenia.
With the collapse of the
Austro-Hungarian monarchy in
1918, Slovenians initially formed part of the
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which shortly joined the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed (1929) the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Following the re-establishment of Yugoslavia at the end of
World War II, Slovenia became a part of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, officially declared on
29 November 1945. Present-day Slovenia was formed on
25 June 1991 upon its independence from Yugoslavia, gained in the
Ten-Day War. Slovenia joined
NATO on
29 March 2004 and the
European Union on
1 May 2004. Slovenia will hold the
Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2008.
Politics
The Slovenian
head of state is the
president, who is elected by popular vote every five years. The
executive branch is headed by the
prime minister and the council of
ministers or
cabinet, which are elected by the
parliament.
The
bicameral Parliament of Slovenia consists of the
National Assembly, and the
National Council . The National Assembly has ninety seats, which are partially filled with directly elected representatives, and partially with proportionally elected representatives (two seats reserved for autochthonous Hungarian and Italian minorities). The National Council has forty seats, and is made up of representatives of social, economic, professional and local interest groups. Parliamentary elections are held every four years.
Administrative divisions
Traditional regions
As given by , traditional Slovenian
regions, based on the former division of Slovenia into four
Habsburg crown lands (
Carniola,
Carinthia,
Styria, and the
Littoral) and their parts, are:
Goriška and Slovenian Istria together are known as the
Littoral region .
White Carniola, otherwise part of Lower Carniola, is considered a separate region of Slovenia, as are
Zasavje and
Posavje, the former being a part of Upper and Lower Carniola and Styria; and the latter part of
Lower Carniola and
Styria.
Natural regions
The first regionalizations of Slovenia were made by geographers
Anton Melik (1935-1936) and
Svetozar Ilešič (1968). The newer regionalization by
Ivan Gams divides Slovenia in the following macroregions:
According to a newer natural geographic regionalization, the country consists of four
macroregions. These are the Alpine world, the Mediterranean world, the Dinaric world and the Pannonian world. Macroregions are defined according to major relief units (the Alps, the Pannonian plain, the Dinaric mountains) and climate types (continental, alpine, mediterranean). These are often quite interwoven.
Macroregions consist of multiple and very diverse
mesoregions. The main factor that defines them is the relief together with the geologic composition. Mesoregions in turn consist of numerous
microregions.
Statistical regions
Slovenia's statistical regions exist solely for legal and statistical purposes. May 2005, twelve have been defined:
The government, however, is preparing a plan for new administrative regions. The number of these regions isn't yet defined, but is said to be between twelve and fourteen. After being unveiled publicly, the plan will undergo parliamentary debate.
Constitutional changes allowing the creation of regions have already been approved by the National Assembly. If, however, twelve administrative regions are favored, that'll most likely be the same as those already in place.
On May 24, 2007 the government released a regionalization proposal with 14 regions. It has been stated that 14 will be the maximum allowed number of regions, but their actual names, territories and capitals have yet to be exactly determined.
Municipalities
Slovenia is divided into 210 municipalities (singular ), of which eleven have urban status.
Geography
Four major European geographic regions meet in Slovenia: the
Alps, the
Dinarides, the
Pannonian plain, and the
Mediterranean. Slovenia's highest peak is
Triglav (2,864 m; 9,396
ft); the country's average height above the sea level is 557 metres (1,827 ft). Around one half of the country (11,691 km²; 4,514
sq mi) is covered by
forests; this makes Slovenia the third most forested country in Europe, after
Finland and
Sweden. Remnants of primeval forests are still to be found, the largest in the
Kočevje area. Grassland covers 5,593 square kilometres (2,159 sq mi) of the country and fields and gardens 2,471 square kilometres (954 sq mi). There are also 363 square kilometres (140 sq mi) of orchards and 216 square kilometres (83 sq mi) of
vineyards.
Its
climate is Submediterranean on the coast, Alpine in the mountains and continental with mild to hot summers and cold winters in the plateaus and valleys to the east. The average temperatures are -2°
C (28°
F) in January and 21°C (70°F) in July. The average rainfall is 1,000 millimetres (39.4
in) for the coast, up to 3,500 millimetres (137.8 in) for the Alps, 800 millimetres (31.5 in) for south east and 1,400 millimetres (55.1 in) for central Slovenia.
Although located on the shore of the
Mediterranean Sea, most of Slovenia is in the
Black Sea drainage basin. The
geometric center of gravity of Slovenia is located at the
geographic coordinates 46°07'11,8" N and 14°48'55,2" E. It lies in
Spodnja Slivna near
Vače in the
municipality of
Litija.
Economy
Slovenia has a high-income
developed economy which enjoys the highest
GDP per capita ($26,576 in 2007) of the newly joined EU countries, or around 89% of the EU average. The country's relatively high rate of
inflation declined to 2.3% by 2006 and is now comparable to the average in the
European Union. Slovenia's economy has started to
grow more strongly in the last few years (7.2% in first quarter of 2007, 5.7% in 2006, 4.1% in 2005), after relatively slow growth in 2003 (2.8%). Overall, the country is on a sound economic footing.
During the 2000s, privatisations were seen in the
banking,
telecommunications, and public utility sectors. Restrictions on foreign
investment are slowly being dismantled, and
foreign direct investment (FDI) is expected to increase over the next few years. Slovenia is the economic front-runner of the countries that joined the European Union in 2004 and was the first new member to adopt the
euro as the country's only currency on
1 January 2007. Moreover, Slovenia will also be the first new member state to hold the
Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2008.
Demographics
Slovenia's main ethnic group is
Slovenians (84%). Nationalities from the
former Yugoslavia (
Serbs,
Croats,
Bosniaks &
Muslims by nationality) form 6.3% and the
Hungarian,
Italian and
Roma minorities 0.6% of the population. Ethnic affiliation of 8.9% was either undeclared or unknown. Life expectancy in 2003 was 72.2 years for men and 80 years for women.
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source: 2002 census
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source: 2002 census
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With 99 inhabitants per square kilometre (256/sq mi), Slovenia ranks low among the European countries in population density (compare with 320/km² (829/sq mi) for the
Netherlands or 195/km² (505/sq mi) for
Italy). The Notranjsko-kraška region has the lowest population density while the Osrednjeslovenska region has the highest. Approximately 51% of the population lives in urban areas and 49% in rural areas.
The official language is
Slovenian, which is a member of the
South Slavic language group.
Hungarian and
Italian enjoy the status of official languages in the ethnically mixed regions along the Hungarian and Italian borders.
By religion, Slovenians have traditionally been largely
Roman Catholic. Before the communist era, as much as 88% of Slovenians were Roman Catholic, while by 1991 this had dropped to 71.6%, and the number of followers is still falling reaching 57.8% according to the 2002 Census.
According to the most recent
Eurobarometer Poll 2005, 37% of Slovenian citizens responded that "they believe there's a god", whereas 46% answered that "they believe there's some sort of spirit or life force" and 16% that "they don't believe there's any sort of spirit, god, or life force".
Culture
Slovenia's first book was printed by the Protestant reformer
Primož Trubar (1508-1586). It was actually two books, (a
catechism) and
Abecedarium, which was published in 1550 in
Tübingen,
Germany.
The central part of the country, namely
Carniola (which existed as a part of
Austria-Hungary until the early
twentieth century) was ethnographically and historically well-described in the book
The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (), published in 1689 by
Baron Janez Vajkard Valvasor (1641-1693).
Slovenia's two greatest writers were the poet
France Prešeren (1800-1849) and writer
Ivan Cankar (1876-1918).
Drago Jančar is the leading name of Slovenian contemporary literature, and
Nejc Gazvoda is the most noticeable name among newcomers. The most important Slovenian painters are
Ivana Kobilca and
impressionist Rihard Jakopič. The most famed Slovenian architect is
Jože Plečnik who worked in
Vienna as well as in
Prague.
Slovenia is a homeland of numerous musicians and composers, including
Renaissance composer
Jacobus Gallus (1550-1591), who greatly influenced Central European classical music. In the twentieth century,
Bojan Adamič was a renowned film music composer and
Ivo Petrić (born June 16, 1931), is a composer of European classical music.
Contemporary popular musicians have been
Slavko Avsenik,
Laibach,
Vlado Kreslin,
Zoran Predin,
Pero Lovšin,
Silence,
Buldožer,
Niet,
Pankrti,
New Swing Quartet,
DJ Umek,
Valentino Kanzyani,
Melodrom,
Siddharta,
Terrafolk,
Magnifico and others.
Slovenian cinema has more than a century-long tradition with
Karol Grossmann,
Janko Ravnik,
Ferdo Delak, France Štiglic,
Mirko Grobler,
Igor Pretnar, France Kosmač, Jože Pogačnik, Matjaž Klopčič, Jane Kavčič,
Jože Gale, Boštjan Hladnik and
Karpo Godina as its most established filmmakers. Contemporary film directors
Janez Burger, Jan Cvitkovič,
Damjan Kozole,
Janez Lapajne and
Maja Weiss are most notable representatives of the so-called "Renaissance of Slovenian cinema".
Slovenia's learned men include
chemist and Nobel prize laureate
Friderik Pregl,
physicist Jožef Stefan,
philosopher Slavoj Žižek,
linguist Franc Miklošič, physician
Anton Marko Plenčič,
mathematician Jurij Vega, rocket engineer and pioneer of cosmonautics
Herman Potočnik.
Biodiversity
Although Slovenia is a small country, there's an exceptionally wide variety of habitats. In the north of Slovenia are the
Alps (namely,
Julian Alps,
Karavanke,
Kamnik Alps), and in the south stand the
Dinarides. There is also a small area of the Pannonian plain and a
Littoral Region. Much of southwestern Slovenia is characterized by
Kras, also known as the Classical Karst, a very rich, often unexplored underground habitat containing diverse
flora and
fauna. The English word
karst, used generically for this type of topography, derives from this region.
Half of the country (about 58%) is covered by forests. These forests are an important natural resource, but they're also valuable for the preservation of natural diversity. An ecological asset like all forests, they enrich the soil and cleanse the water and air. Slovenians find the social benefits of tourism and recreation. The forests also lend their natural beauty to the Slovenian landscape. In the interior of the country there are typical
Central European forests. The predominant trees are
oaks and
beeches. In the mountains,
spruce,
fir, and
pine are more common. The
tree line is at 1,700 to 1,800 metres (or 5,575 to 5,900 feet).
Pinetrees also grow on the
Karst plateau. Only one third of
Kras (Karst) is now covered by pine forest. It is said that most of the forest was chopped down long ago to provide the wooden pylons on which the city of Venice now stands. The
Karst and
White Carniola are well known for the mysterious
proteus. The
lime/linden tree, also common in Slovenian forests, is a national symbol.
In the Alps, flowers such as
Daphne blagayana, various
gentians (
Gentiana clusii,
Gentiana froelichi),
Primula auricula,
Edelweiss (the symbol of Slovenian mountaineering),
Cypripedium calceolus,
Fritillaria meleagris (Snakes's head), and
Pulsatilla grandis are found.
The country's fauna includes
marmots (introduced),
steinbocks, and
chamois. There are numerous
deer,
roe deer,
boars, and
hares. The
edible dormouse is often found in the Slovenian beech forests. Hunting these animals is a long tradition and is well described in the book
The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (1689), written by
Janez Vajkard Valvasor (1641-1693). Some important carnivores include the
Eurasian lynx (reintroduced to the
Kočevje area in 1973), European
wild cats,
foxes (especially the
red fox), and the rare
jackal. There are also
hedgehogs,
martens, and snakes such as
vipers and
grass snakes. As of March 2005, Slovenia also has a limited population of wolves and around four hundred
brown bears.
There is a wide variety of birds, such as the
tawny owl, the
long-eared owl, the
Eagle Owl,
hawks, and
Short-toed Eagles. Various other birds of prey have been recorded, as well as a growing number of
ravens,
crows and
magpies migrating into Ljubljana and Maribor where they thrive. Other birds include (both black and green)
woodpeckers and the
white stork which nests in
Prekmurje.
The indigenous Slovenian fish is the
Marmorata, a type of trout. Extensive breeding programs have been introduced to repopulate the Marmorata into lakes and streams invaded by non-indigenous species of
trout. The only regular species of
cetaceans found in the northern Adriatic sea is the
Bottlenose Dolphin (
Tursiops truncatus).
Domestic animals originating in Slovenia include the
Carniolan honeybee, the indigenous
Karst Sheepdog and the
Lipizzan horse. The exploration of various cave systems has yielded discoveries of many cave-dwelling insects and other organisms.
Slovenia is a veritable cornucopia of forest, cavern and mountain-dwelling wildlife. Many species that are endangered or can no longer be found in other parts of Europe can still be found here.
Education
The Slovenian education system consists of:
pre-school education
basic education (single structure of primary and lower secondary education)
(upper) secondary education: vocational and technical education, secondary general education
higher vocational education
higher education
Specific parts of the system:
adult education
music and dance education
special needs education
programmes in ethnically and linguistically mixed areas
Currently there are four universities in Slovenia:
University of Ljubljana
University of Maribor
University of Primorska
University of Nova Gorica
External results
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