SLOVENIA

POSTCARDS

Miss Slavica Radej, A friend of mine in Slovenia, sent me these postcards, thanks!

Slovenia (i /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija]( listen)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on the northeast, and Austria on the north, and also has a small portion of coastline along the Adriatic Sea. It covers an area of 20,273 square kilometres (7,827 sq mi) and has a population of 2.05 million. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana. Historically, the current territory of Slovenia was part of many different state formations, including the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1918, the Slovenes exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the internationally unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. During World War Two, Slovenia was occupied and annexed by Germany, Italy, Hungary and Croatia only to emerge afterwards reunified with its western part as a founding member of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1991, Slovenia declared full sovereignty. Today, Slovenia is a member of the European Union, the Eurozone, the Schengen area, NATO and OECD. Per capita, it is the richest Slavic nation-state, at 85.5% of the EU27 average GDP (PPP) per capita. Culturally and demographically, Slovenia has been a border area throughout its history. Here, four linguistic and cultural groups of the continent have been meeting: Slavic, Germanic, Romance and Finno-Ugric.The population of Slovenia has become more diverse in regard to its language and ethnic composition through recent decades but is still relatively homogenous.Approximately 83% of inhabitants considered themselves Slovenes in the 2002 census. Another major group are immigrants from the countries of Former Yugoslavia. Slovenia is a largely secularised country; however, major religions are politically and legally privileged. Roman Catholicism is the most prevalent religion.The development of the Slovenian identity was also markedly influenced by Protestantism in the centuries past.