Slovenia
Where the Alps meet the Adriatic in a small, green, mountainous land
Slovenia is a small, intensely green country where the Julian Alps, the Mediterranean, the Pannonian Plain, and the karst plateau all converge in a space barely larger than New Jersey. Famous for the postcard island church of Lake Bled, the spectacular Postojna caves, and one of the highest forest covers in Europe, it is home to about 2.1 million people, with Ljubljana, a compact city of riverside cafés and dragon bridges, as its capital. Slovenia blends Alpine, Slavic, and Mediterranean influences into a distinctive and prosperous identity.
The Julian Alps in the northwest rise to Triglav at 2,864 meters, the country's highest peak and its national symbol, set within Slovenia's only national park. The Karst region gave its name to the geological term itself, riddled with caves and underground rivers, and a short Adriatic coast around Piran opens to the sea. Forests cover well over half the land, sheltering brown bears and lynx, while the Sava and Drava rivers drain toward the Danube. A varied climate supports vineyards, hops, and alpine pasture.
The Slovene lands spent centuries within the Habsburg realm, preserving a Slavic language amid German-speaking neighbors, before joining the South Slav state that became Yugoslavia. Slovenia was the first republic to break away in 1991, after a brief ten-day war, and quickly turned toward the West, joining the European Union and NATO in 2004 and adopting the euro in 2007. A Catholic, Central European nation with a strong literary tradition and a love of the outdoors, it is among the wealthiest of the former Yugoslav states.