SLOVENJE

is the cultural and historical region in North Croatia. It is located where mellow Alpine hills meet Pannonian valley. This geographic position within Central-Europe has defined its unique culture, architecture  and tradition.


Slovenje means green - green hills, wineyards, valleys and forests, so it is no wonder that oldest traditional Kaikaivan architecture is made of oak wood. There are still traditional wooden churches and even villas.

Slovenje also means flowers that are often presented on Kaikavian Volkstracht and in pentatonic folk songs. It means culture, where landscape, spiritual heritage and people become one, as presented in the world famous Kaikavian Art Naive.

Slovenje is a region with more than 1500 years of continuity of culture. 
And this is what this site is about - culture. Culture means heritage, arts, creative industries, and even language as vehicle of cultural expressions.

Native language of Slovenje is of course Slovenje, today falsely called Kaikavian by external Croatian and Serbian establishme. It is expressed in one of its 6 main dialects. 

Slovenje has 9 main subregions, all of which share common Slovenjski language, culture and tradition. One of the goals of this site is to present this common heritage, making the subregions more coherent through raising awareness of their shared cultural assets, expressions and tradition.

HISTORY
 

We call this north Croatian region Slovenje since this is its original name dating to prince Ljudevit Posavski.

From 18th ct. to mid of 19. ct. it was called for short time Horvatska, a name which was imposed by Croatian nobility who fled to Slovenski orsag from Croatia that was occupied by Turks. The official language of "Horvatska" remaind what the same Slovenski language, what is falsely called Kaikavian by external Croatian and Serbian.

Before that it was known as Slovenje or Slovenski orsag (meaning "Slovene land", in latin Sclavonia) in Middle Ages, and its language was called of course Slovene. As you see, the exterior name shifted, but the content was always preserved - the culture and language. 
At the very beginning of Europe as we know it, Carolingian sources know Slovenje, its rulers and its inhabitants very well, calling this land Lower Pannonia. Its inhabitants most probably called themselves Slovenci at the time of Charlemagne and famous duke Ljudevit of Lower Pannonia. We know for sure they did not call them "Croats" nor they did see them selves as such. First Croatian names start to appear with Croatian refugees in Slovenje in 15.-16 century. Already in 11th century written sources speak of Sclavonia/Slovenje. But we know that they spoke the same language as today, which they left us as living heritage. This language is spoken throughout Slovenje today, being similar to Slovene and Slovak(also originaly called Slovene!). According to linguists language of Slovenje was already distinctly defined around 800 - during the 1st state of prince Ljudevit!

People of Slovenje preserved their unique culture and tradition in customs, mythology like tales and folk songs, and even in sacral architecture, that we present on this site for you to discover. Even today, pre-Christian and pre-Carolingian Slavic elements are alive in Slovenje.

Today Slovenjci are understood as distinct cultural and linguistic group living mostly in historical region of Sloveje, with a small part in Hungary. They are distinct from Slovenci around Ljubljana.

Economically observed is Slovenje region the most developed region in Croatia (along with Istria), since from its very begining Slovenje has been part of (Central) Europe, sharing and contributing to European cultural, societal and economic development.





PRESENT


Despite of all this, Slovenje and its history and culture are relatively unknown. This site is addressing the challenge of globalisation by presenting uniqueness of Slovenje to the public of whole world.

FUTURE 


A region whose development is based on culture and sustainable development, and a region that fully interacts with its closer neighbour regions and with broader European context. 

This change is happening right now, through the usage of modern information technologies combined with expertise and vision of project-members:

In order to foster Cultural and Linguistic Diversity of Croatia as 4th pillar of sustaianable development, this site presents the unique Kaikaivan culture - material and immaterial heritage, tradition, arts, and its product that have cultural content or relation - authentic regional food & wine producers, preferably eco; interesting places to stay and to feel the mellow spirit of Slovenje.

Slovenje.eu is made acording to UNESCO “Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions”, fostering Cultural Diversity in Croatia; 
and based on Agenda 21 for culture -  understanding of culture as 4th pillar of sustainable development.

Slovenje.eu focuses on rural areas contributing to rural development, clearly showing at the same time that rural can be rich with culture.

MISSION of Slovenje.eu

is to connect people of Slovebje more with their own culture and heritage, and through this, to connect them with the whole world. 
People interested in culture, cultural tourism and sustainable development use this site to explore and discover what is going on in Slovenje. They support local creative & cultural industries and foster sustainable development in rural regions of Slovenje - enjoying fresh locally grown eco food & wine, using traditional crafts products based on natural materials, learning about unique material and immaterial heritage of Slovenje.