Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In the mid-19th century, the railway connecting Vienna to the Adriatic (Trieste)
was built through town—and Ljubljana boomed. An earthquake hit the city in 1895,
damaging many buildings. Locals cleverly exaggerated the impact (propping up
buildings that were structurally sound, and even tearing down unwanted old houses
that had been unharmed) in preparation for the visit of Emperor Franz Josef—who
took pity on the city and invested generously in its reconstruction. Ljubljana was
made over in the Art Nouveau style so popular in Vienna, its capital at the time. A
generation later, architect Jože Ple
č
nik bathed the city in his distinctive, artsy-but-
sensible, classical-meets-modern style.
In World War II, Slovenia was occupied first by the Italians, then by the Nazis.
Ljubljana had a thriving resistance movement that the Nazis couldn't suppress—so
they simply fenced off the entire city and made it a giant prison for three years, al-
lowing only shipments of basic food supplies to get in. But the Slovenes—who knew
their land far better than their oppressors did—continued to slip in and out of town
undetected, allowing them to agitate through the end of the war.
In 1991, Ljubljana became the capital of one of Europe's youngest nations. Today
the city is filled with university students, making it feel very youthful. Ljubljana
has always felt free to be creative, and recent years—with unprecedented
freedoms—have been no exception. This city is on the cutting edge when it comes to
architecture, publicart,fashion,andtrendypubs—atendencyembodiedbyitslarger-
garde culture has soft edges—hip, but also nonthreatening and user-friendly.
