Introduction

All articles
Recent articles:

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 ...

more...

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A remarkable historical document, important in establishing the place of Slovenian people and culture within existing European civilization.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 ...

more...

Contemporary Slovenian Architecture

All articles
Recent articles:

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

All articles
Recent articles:

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.

more...

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...

First flute

A bear bone flute found in the Cave of Divje Babe (Wild Women’s Cave) in 1995 was used by Neanderthal man 45,000 years ago. The instrument has two holes intact with…

more...

Pre-Christian goddess worship

In the frescoes of Hrastovlje he discovered the representation of an ancient pre-Christian religion of the Goddess, which existed in a matriarchal world order later to be displaced ...

more...

Ethnographic Heritage

All articles
Recent articles:

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 

more...

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 ...

more...

Kurentovanje

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

more...

Myths and Legends

All articles
Recent articles:

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

All articles
Recent articles:

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

All articles
Recent articles:

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...

Pivka Valley, the jewel of Kras

The fluidly shifting relationship between surface and underground waters adds to the magic of the area. more...

Notable Slovenes

All articles
Recent articles:

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...

France Prešeren, the poet

Prešeren's achievement in effect contributed to the rise of the Slovenian nation and Slovenian emancipation among the family of national cultures in 19th century Europe ... more...

Janez Vajkard Valvasor

At that time, and some time after, no other country could boast of such a publication. In this work he describes Carniola, the central Slovenian region. more...

Arts

All articles
Recent articles:

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

All articles
Recent articles:

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 ...

more...

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 ...

more...

Landmarks

All articles
Recent articles:

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...