Extra culture

It all began in the 9th century with three religious texts called the Freising manuscripts (Brižinski spomeniki), which contained the first written words in the Slovenian language. The 500 years that followed gave the Slovenians three other important manuscripts which were all translations of German and Latin religious texts.

The first printed words in Slovenian appeared in 1515 on a leaflet which asked peasants to come together and fight against their landlords. Only 35 years after that, the Slovenians got their first printed book, written by the Protestant priest Primož Trubar.

The first newspaper in the Slovenian language called Lublanske novize came out at the end of the 18th century. It offered people the opportunity to read about political, social and cultural issues of the time in their own language and to enjoy many literary texts.

On 1 September 1928, Slovenians could start listening to the programme of Radio Ljubljana, the first national radio station. The person who addressed them on the air that day was the writer Fran Saleški Finžgar. 30 years later, in 1958, the first television programme started broadcasting, initially in black and white and eight years later also in colour.

The Iskra company was a very important manufacturer of all kinds of electronic devices, including telephones. Iskra started their production in the 1950s. Initially, telephones were used in railway and postal services. Before they found their way into people’s homes, it was possible to make phone calls from public phone booths.

The beginnings of the first mobile phones in Slovenia date back to 1987. In those days, mobiles were very expensive, text messaging was not possible, and the battery ran out aften only 30 minutes of conversation.

The use of the Internet in Slovenia began in 1991, when the Jožef Stefan Institute set up the first IP connection and the .yu (Yugoslavia) domain server. The first website promoting Slovenia called Mat’kurja was launched in 1996.