SLOVENIA: 5 Very Interesting Facts To Know!

Countries around the world are recognised by their typical features. What comes to your mind when you think about Slovenia?

Let’s see if we can help …

1. Slovenia is a land of honey

Slovenia is the homeland of leading beekeepers and also home of the Carniolan honey bee. The quality of Slovenia’s honey is a result both of Slovenia’s landscape and its long tradition of apiculture.

**Slovenian honey (med) is protected in the EU (Photo:** **Slovenian Beekeepers Association**)

“If the bee disappeared from the surface of the globe, then man would have no more than four years to live.” Albert Einstein

2. Diversity of the Slovenian language

Slovenian language is one of the smallest Slavic languages. It’s also one of the most diverse in terms of dialects. Even linguists don’t agree precisely how many dialects of Slovenian there are. Most believe that there are close to 50.

Slovenian speakers themselves have sometimes trouble understanding some dialects from another part of the country.

3. It’s a country of churches

There are almost no villages in Slovenia that do not have a church. The country is also full of convents, monasteries, and roadside shrines.

Altogether, there are about 3,000 churches, chapels and sacred buildings in the country.

**Lake Bohinj, Church Of St. John The Baptist.**

Anyone traveling around Slovenia will soon notice this incredible legacy.

4. World famous novel takes place in Slovenia

Not many people know (as not even Hemingway himself mentioned it in his “A Farewell to Arms” novel), but the 1917 Battle of Caporetto, where the Italian retreat during WWI was documented, takes place on Slovenian soil.

Trenta, Bovec, Kobarid, Gorica, Kanal, Tolmin – these are the concrete names of the towns in the Soča valley where the battles of Isonzo front or Soška fronta were fought between the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary.

The battle is well documented in the Kobarid museum.

**Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” takes place in what is now Slovenia.**

5. One of the safest countries

Slovenia is also one of the safest countries in the world for travellers, faring very well in all three key indicators – security, medical risks and road safety, showed a risk world map for 2020 released by the SOS International NGO.

On a 1-5 scale for security, Slovenia places among only a handful of European countries with “insignificant” travel security risks alongside Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Greenland.