About Slovenia

     Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovenian: Republika Slovenija, listen (help·info)), is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north. The capital of Slovenia is Ljubljana.

     At various points in Slovenia's history, the country has been part of the Roman Empire, the Duchy of Carantania (only modern Slovenia's northern part), the Holy Roman Empire, Austria-Hungary, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929) between the World Wars, and the SFR of Yugoslavia from 1945 until gaining independence in 1991. Slovenia is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO.

 
     Slavic ancestors of the present-day Slovenians settled in the area in the sixth century. The Slavic Duchy of Carantania was formed in the seventh century. In 745, Carantania lost its independence, being largely subsumed into the Frankish empire. Many Slavs converted to Christianity.

     The Freising manuscripts, the earliest surviving written documents in a Slovenian dialect and the first ever Slavic document in Latin script, were written around 1000. During the fourteenth century, most of Slovenia's regions passed into ownership of the Habsburgs whose lands later formed the Austrian Empire, with Slovenians inhabiting all or most of the provinces of Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca and parts of the provinces of Istria, Carinthia, Styria, the region of Prekmurje that belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and Venetian Slovenia which was part of the Austrian Empire between 1797-1805 and 1815-1866. Slovenians also inhabited most of the territory of the Imperial Free City of Trieste, although representing the minority of its population.

     In 1848, a massive political and popular movement for a United Slovenia (Zedinjena Slovenija) emerged as part of the Spring of Nations movement within Austria.

About Crni Kal

     The Črni Kal Viaduct is the longest and highest viaduct in Slovenia. It is located on the A1 motorway above the Osp Valley near the village of Gabrovica, about 20 km east of Koper.

     The viaduct is 1065 metres long and is mounted on 11 columns, the highest reaching 87.5 m. Construction work began in 2001 and the viaduct was opened for traffic on September 23, 2004. When almost completed in May 2004, it also served as a stage of the Giro d'Italia race.