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 Valeta

     Valletta, population 6,315 (official estimate for 2005), is the capital city of Malta. The whole city was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

     The Valletta peninsula, which is fed by the two natural harbours of Marsamxett and the Grand Harbour, is Malta's major port, with unloading quays at Marsa; a cruise-liner terminal has been built recently in the Grand Harbour, along the old sea-wall of the duty free stores built by Grandmaster Manuel Pinto de Fonseca.

     The city contains several buildings of historic importance, amongst which are St John's Co-Cathedral, formerly the Conventual Church of the Knights of Malta and home to the largest single work by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, his only signed work, and a priceless collection of seventeenth-century Flemish tapestries (alongside Republic Street); the Auberge de Castille et Leon, formerly the official seat of the Knights of Malta of the Langue of Castille, Léon and Portugal, now the office of the Prime Minister of Malta (found on the highest point of the city, above the bastions); the Magisterial Palace, built between 1571 and 1574, formerly the seat of the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, now housing the Maltese Parliament and the offices of the President of Malta (opposite Palace Square along Republic Street); the National Museum of Fine Arts, a Rococo palace dating back to the late 1570s, which served as the official residence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet during the British era, from 1789 onwards (in South Street); the National Museum of Archaeology, formerly the Auberge de Provence (Republic Street); the Manoel Theatre (Teatru Manwel, in Maltese), constructed in just ten months in 1731, by order of Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vilhena, and one of the oldest working theatres in Europe; the Mediterranean Conference Centre, formerly the Sacra Infermeria, built in 1574, one of Europe's most renowned hospitals during the time of the Knights of Malta; and the fortifications themselves, built by the Knights as a magnificent series of bastions, demi-bastions, ravelins and curtains, approximately 100 metres high, designed to protect the city from attack.

     Valletta has a suburb, Floriana, which was built on the outside part of the Valletta bastions and on the inner part of the Floriana Lines, hence leaving an area between these two lines to house those that could not afford a house in Valletta. Another area for such people is located within Valletta's own walls: In the original plans, the Order wanted a man-made creek to house the navy, however this could not be completed, and so the area, known as Manderaggio (in Maltese 'il-Mandraġġ'), was taken over by the homeless, so resulting in a jumble of buildings with dark alleyways in despicable sanitary conditions. The Manderaggio was partially demolished in the 1950s so as to build a housing area in Valletta. The area still remains a shabby area, yet still it is better than it was before.