Interesting facts about Slovenia, all with a source

Records with a Guinness stamp

Two have an official stamp. In Maribor’s Lent district grows a modra kavčina vine that, according to the Tourist Board, Guinness World Records recognises as more than 400 years old, the oldest in the world. I stick with that cautious figure, the one on the vine’s own page. The other is Predjama Castle, wedged into a 123-metre rock face for more than 800 years and listed by Guinness as the largest cave castle in the world. The vine’s story, with its museum house, is in the oldest vine in the world.

Facts from underground

The Karst is good for a few surprises. You’ve been able to ride a train into Postojna Cave for more than 140 years, and according to the Tourist Board no other karst cave has a railway. It’s home to the olm, the largest cave-dwelling animal, which can live to 100 and go years without food; the first hatching ever observed was in May 2016. Predjama Castle, meanwhile, has tunnels leading down to the cave beneath it. Both visits are covered in Postojna Cave.

Language, the dual and names

Slovenian still uses the dual, a separate grammatical number for pairs, and has more than 40 dialects in a country of two million people, according to the government. The same source gives Franc and Marija as the commonest first names and Novak as the most common surname. And the national anthem isn’t a military march but a toast, the seventh stanza of France Prešeren’s «Zdravljica».

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Maribor before prices climb.

Old dates in unexpected places

Three dates stand out for me. Lipica stud farm, the cradle of the Lipizzaner horse, was founded in 1580. Dobrna has treated patients since 1403, so the Tourist Board presents it as Slovenia’s longest-running spa still in business. And at Idrija mercury was discovered in 1490, according to UNESCO, which lists the town as World Heritage together with Almadén in Spain.

Nature you might not expect

The government puts forest at over half of the land, and the Tourist Board says Slovenia has the largest number of wild bears living in a natural environment. That’s no joke, because the FCDO warns that bears roam wooded areas across the country, including near towns. How to behave in the forest is explained in bears in Slovenia.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Maribor and choose by the reviews.

And one for thrill-seekers

At Planica, near Kranjska Gora, the valley of the ski-flying hills, you can ride a zipline down the jump itself. The Tourist Board describes it as the steepest zipline in the world. I haven’t seen that record confirmed elsewhere, so I’ve left it with its owner’s name attached.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Maribor before prices climb.