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Slovenia
is like an eddy pool in a torrent of cultures. Influences
have washed over it through the centuries: Italian from
the west, Austro-German from the north, Hungarian from
the north-east and Balkan from the east. Consequently,
it's very difficult to pin down any particular aspect
of its culture - it's a mixed-up place. For instance,
the music you will hear could be alpine, turbo-folk (kitsch
with a very big K), central European folk, gypsy bands,
fifties-influenced jazz or Yugo-rock. However, you will
also find that most
Slovenes like (and defend to the death) most
of their music... especially after a couple of beers.
Click on a topic to the left for more information (an
entirely biased view, of course), images and clips. |
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Although only a nation state since 1992, Slovenia
has a long and complicated history. As this is a travel
website, we won't go into detail here, but suffice to
say that a little country like this doesn't survive
and prosper for fifteen centuries without a story to
tell.
Here's the bullet point version:
- The earliest
Slovenes arrived in the sixth century
- Since
then, occupied by: Franks, Austro-Germans, Romans,
French and Germans
- Scene
of terrible battles on the Soča front during WW1
- Became
part of Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
after WW1
- Occupied
by Germans and Italians during WW2
- Joined
Tito's Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia following
WW2
- Declared
full independence in 1991
- Joined
EU in 2004
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