Slovenia VISA

Visa is required for traveling to Slovenia

Heritage & Culture of Slovenia

Culture has a special historical and social significance in Slovenia. It was primarily thanks to their culture and their common language of Slovene that the people of Slovenia were able to forge themselves into a nation and survive. Language and culture have for centuries compensated Slovenes for the lack of their own state and political institutions. Slovenia is one of those rare countries, if not the only country in the world, where a day of culture is a national holiday.

Music

There are five professional orchestras in Slovenia, and a host of musicians who are famed outside the country. The largest concert halls are at the Cankarjev Dom cultural and conference centre, which holds close to a thousand events each year.

Slovenia’s own brand of polka music reached its peak in the accordion and ensemble of Slavko Avsenik, while the annual festival in Stična is a feast of choral singing, and the France Marolt folk group have performed their singing and dancing all over the world.

The contemporary thrill of classical music is the territory of the Slovenian Philharmonic, particularly its top musicians, flautist Irena Grafenauer, pianist Dubravka TomÅ¡ič and soprano Marjana LipovÅ¡ek.

Laibach have been a highly influential band in the last few decades in modern alternative music. The ethno-pop of Magnif

Architecture

Architecture is also a vital part of Slovenian heritage. The most famous native architect, Jože Plečnik, was a pioneer of modern Slovenian and European architecture of the 20th century. Ljubljana is famed for his work. Many of Plečnik’s students continued his legacy in the second half of the 20th century.

International cultural events

Each year Slovenia hosts a number of other events that are renowned further afield. To mention a few: the Exodos dance festival in Ljubljana, the Ana Desetnica festival of street theatre, the PEN meeting in Bled and the Vilenica literary festival near Sežana.

In short, the range of cultural events, festivals, concerts and exhibitions in Slovenia is enough to satisfy the most demanding of guests

Cuisine of Slovenia

Local cuisine is under a considerable influence of the neighbouring countries’ cuisines: Austria, Italy, Croatia and Hungary. Its basis is cereals, dairy products, meat (especially pork), sea and fresh-water fish, vegetables, beans, olives and grape.

Slovenia has borrowed sausage, Wiener Schnitzel and strudel from the Austrian cuisine.
Among popular Italian dishes, which can be tasted in Slovenia, there are almost all kinds of dishes made from pasta (testenine), potato dumplings called gnocchi, pizza (pica), risotto (rižota) and zlikrofi, which resemble ravioli a lot.Hungarian cuisine has gifted the local one with goulash (golaz), braised chicken or beef (paprikas) and palacink – thin pancakes which are filled with jam or nuts and chocolate is poured over them. Apple pie and meat double-cake (burek) relate to the main Balkan dishes

Festivals in Slovenia

Ljubljana is home to Slovenia's cultural epicentre, Cankarjev Dom, which offers a huge range of events throughout the year. Some of the main cultural events in the capital are music festivals, such as the Summer Festival, the Jazz Festival and Druga Godba. Maribor boasts the outstanding Lent Festival.

Ljubljana Summer Festival

The Ljubljana Summer Festival is a festival held between July and August in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia.

It attracts notable opera stars, ballet and theatre performers and also eminent rock and jazz musicians internationally who perform at the festival.

Lent Festival

The Lent International Summer Festival is a major arts festival held for approximately two weeks at the end of June annually in Maribor, Slovenia. Organized by the Narodni dom Cultural Center every year the festival attracts theatre, opera, ballet performers, classical, modern, and jazz musicians and dancers from all over the world as well as visitors. There are also mimes, magicians, and acrobats performing during the festival.

Ljubljana Jazz Festival

Each year, the Ljubljana Jazz Festival features some of the world's biggest names in jazz, attracting music lovers from home and abroad.