Slovenia? What? Where?
By Mitja Mersol Posted Apr 1 2002
This is the beginning of a toast that happens to be the Slovenian national anthem. The poem was written by France Prešeren (1800-1849), Slovenia’s greatest romantic poet. A country with a bit more than one decade of independence with a toast as a national anthem is quite unique, isn’t it?
In May, Slovenia is hosting this year’s IPI Congress.
Given the limited space for this article, it is impossible to describe the entire cultural and media picture of Slovenia. Some 2,000 titles published by Slovenian publishing houses every year in approximately 9 million copies speak for themselves. In addition to the National and University Library, an institution with a tradition of more than 200 years and ranking among the 300 largest libraries in the world with an impressive fund of more than a million books and publications, there are some 1,500 (public, scientific, school) libraries with a total of almost 20 million books. Furthermore, there are more than 700 various printed media titles being published, with three major dailies, three major RTV stations (and the whole range of regional and local RTV stations), widespread Internet usage (Slovenia being proclaimed a “cool country”). There are 200 museums, two opera houses, and four philharmonic orchestras (the official conductor of the Ljubljana Philharmonic Society in 1881 to 1882 was Gustav Mahler. Honorary members included such personalities as Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms).
A long time ago, I happened to come across a very old illustrated guide to London. The guide starts with an advertisement for Caley Milk Chocolate and ends with an advertisement for Howard’s Aspirin. At that time, I was writing a booklet about Slovenia and came to realize how easy the British have it when introducing their country, cities, culture and landscapes to foreigners. They do not need to plunge eagerly into explanations that take up the first few pages about their location, their past and present, their character and the very reasons for their existence. Oh, no! They can simply start with advertising their chocolate, and when the “more serious” contents start, it is the number of rainy days in London that constitutes one of the very first and basic items of information. Slovenia is producing some very good chocolate, but this certainly cannot be an introduction for a writing about relatively unknown country.
It will take you approximately one hour to fly into Slovenia from Frankfurt, Germany; Zurich, Switzerland; or Rome, Italy, and it will take some two hours from London and about eight hours from New York. If you are traveling by train, starting in Munich, Germany, and crossing Austria, you will need no more than few hours to arrive in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.
Slovenia is an industrial, agricultural, maritime and tourism country. It is a country of modern cities with contemporary architecture permeated with the spirit of master builders of the past. It also has a charming countryside: church steeples in various styles rising above the roofs of village houses, castles and mansions of former feudal lords dotted along river valleys and on hillsides.
Slovenia, a “country on the sunny side of the Alps,” neighbors on Italy (Trieste and Venice are just a good hour of driving from Ljubljana), Austria, Hungary and Croatia. It is historically a millennium and a half on the crossroads between Slavs, Germanic peoples and Romans, snd it has a small proportion (less than 50 kilometers) of Adriatic coast, with a major port in Koper (Capodistria) and the tourist resorts Piran, Portorož and Izola.
Despite its small size, Slovenia’s physical features are extremely varied and rich. In the north, there is the Alpine region with rugged mountains and limestone peaks, including Triglav, the highest mountain (2,864 meters) and a symbol of Slovenia. The eastern region, cloaked by extensive, predominantly coniferous forests, has numerous lakes, of which Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj are the most famous and popular. The southeastern region is abounding with karst phenomena, with famous subterranean caves (Postojna and Škocjan) and more than one million visitors a year. Slovene Karst has 15,000 caves within its underground world and is very rich in fauna (nowhere else in the world will you find “the human fish,” Proteus anguinis). Central Slovenia — with major cities such as Ljubljana, Celje and Kranj — has highly developed industries (electronics, pharmaceutical products, chemistry, furniture) and financial services. The northeastern part, where Maribor, the second-largest Slovenian city is located, has fertile wine-growing hills, crystal production, thermal spas and life-enjoying people. Almost one half of Slovenia is covered by forest. Its cliffs and mountainsides are decorated by more than 70 waterfalls, the most beautiful ones being in the Julian Alps. The climate is mostly continental.
Slovenians are very proud of their men of literature; France Prešeren can rank with the greatest romantic poets. In the middle of 19th century, his poetry raised Slovenian literature to the European level and the Slovenian language to the ranks of cultured languages. Language and literature have helped Slovenians maintain and preserve their identity.
My modesty (oh, really?) dictates me to stop here. Come and see it for yourselves, and, as my poet says at the end of his toast, “may joyful cheer/ Ne’er disappear/ From all good hearts now gathered here.”
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Some Basic Facts about Slovenia
Population: Two million on 20,000 square kilometers
Capital: Ljubljana (pop.300,000)
Language: Slovenian (Slavic, written in Latin)
Government: Parliamentary democracy for the last decade, was part of Yugoslavia in most of the 20th century; for five centuries before that it had been part of the Hapsburg Austrian Empire until the first World War. Slovenia is a candidate for membership in EU and NATO.
Media: First book in Slovenian printed in 1550, first Slovenian newspaper Ljubljana News in the18th century
National sports: Skiing, mountain climbing, soccer, basketball, ice-hockey