Ljubljana Map

• Students make up one-seventh of Ljubljana's population, giving the city a youthful character. The University of Ljubljana, Slovenia's most important and Ljubljana's only university, was founded in 1919. On foundation, the University comprised five faculties: law, philosophy, technology, theology and medicine. The seat of the university was in the central Congress Square of Ljubljana in a building that had served as the State Mansion of Carniola from 1902 to 1918. The building was first designed in 1902 by Jan Vladimir Hrásky, and was later remodelled by a Czech architect from Vienna, Josip Hudetz. As of 2010, it has 23 faculties and three academies. These offer Slovene-language courses in (among other subjects) medicine, applied sciences, arts, law and administration. The university has close to 64,000 students and some 3,500 teaching faculty.

• In 2004, the National and University Library of Slovenia, located in Ljubljana, had 1,169,090 books in all. In 2006, the 55 primary schools had 20,802 pupils and the 32 secondary schools had 25,797.

• Ljubljana has numerous art galleries and museums. In 2004, there were 15 museums, 41 art galleries, 11 theatres and four professional orchestras. There is for example an architecture museum, a railway museum, a sports museum, a museum of modern art, a brewery museum, the Slovenian Museum of Natural History and the Slovene Ethnographic Museum. The Ljubljana Zoo covers 19.6 hectares (48 acres) and has 152 animal species. An antique flea market takes place every Sunday in the old city. In 2006, the museums received 264,470 visitors, the galleries 403,890 and the theatres 396,440.

• Each year over 10,000 cultural events take place in the city; among these are ten international festivals of theatre, music and art generally. Numerous music festivals are held there, chiefly in European classical music and jazz, for instance the Ljubljana Summer Festival (Ljubljanski poletni festival). In the centre of the various Slovenian wine regions, Ljubljana is known for being a "city of wine and vine". Grapevines were already being planted on the slopes leading up to the Castle Hill by the Roman inhabitants of Emona.

• In 1701, present-day Slovenia's first philharmonic academy opened in Ljubljana, which spurred the development of musical production in the region. Some of its honorary members would include Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, as well as the violinist Niccolò Paganini. Early in his career, Gustav Mahler served as conductor at the opera house, giving eighty-four complete performances between September 1881 and April 1882.

• The National Gallery (Narodna galerija), founded in 1918, and the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna galerija), both in Ljubljana, exhibit the most influential Slovenian artists. On Metelkova street there is a social centre dedicated to alternative culture, set up in a renovated former Austro-Hungarian barracks. This lively street has numerous clubs and concert halls that play various types of music, mainly alternative rock. Another alternative culture centre is located in the former Rog factory. In the 1980s, Ljubljana became the centre of the Neue Slowenische Kunst, which among others included the music group Laibach and the painters of the IRWIN collective; the philosopher Slavoj Žižek was also associated with it.

• Ljubljana's ice hockey clubs are HD HS Olimpija, ŠD Alfa, HK Slavija and HDD Olimpija Ljubljana. They all compete in the Slovenian Hockey League; HDD Olimpija Ljubljana also takes part in the Austrian Hockey League. The basketball teams are KD Slovan, ŽKD Ježica Ljubljana and KK Union Olimpija. The latter, which has a green dragon as its mascot, hosts its matches in the 10,000-seat Stožice arena since 2010.

• The city's football teams which play in the Slovenian PrvaLiga are Interblock Ljubljana and NK Olimpija Ljubljana. There are two stadiums in the city. Bežigrad Stadium, which was built according to the plans of Jože Plečnik and is closed since 2008, was the home of the NK Olimpija Ljubljana dissolved in 2004. The much larger Stadium Stožice, opened since August 2010, is the home of the NK Olimpija Ljubljana established in 2005.

• Each year since 1957, on 8–10 May, the traditional recreational March along the Path of Remembrance and Comradeship has taken place to mark the liberation of Ljubljana on 9 May 1945. The last Sunday in October, the Ljubljana Marathon is run on the city's streets. It attracts several thousand runners each year.

• The Tacen Whitewater Course, located on a polygon next to the Sava, eight kilometers northwest of the city centre, hosts a major international canoe/kayak slalom competition almost every year, examples being the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships in 1955, 1991, and 2010.

• The Tivoli Park (Park Tivoli) is the largest park in Ljubljana. The park was designed in 1813 by the French engineer Jean Blanchard and now covers approximately 5 km (1.9 sq mi). The park was laid out during the French imperial administration of Ljubljana in 1813 and named after the ParisianJardins de Tivoli. At the edge of Tivoli Park is a fish pond, dating back to 1880. On one side of the pond is a small botanic garden, on the other side is a children's playground. Between 1921 and 1939, it was renovated by the Slovene architect Jože Plečnik, who designed a broad central promenade, called the Jakopič Promenade (Jakopičevo sprehajališče) after the leading Slovene impressionist painter Rihard Jakopič. It has three main avenues, planted with chestnut-trees. Within the park, there are different types of trees, flower gardens, several statues, and fountains. Several notable buildings stand in the Park, among them the Tivoli Castle, the National Museum of Contemporary History and the Tivoli Sports Hall.

• A number of earthquakes have devastated Ljubljana, including in 1511 and 1895. Slovenia is in a rather active seismic zone because of its position to the south of the Eurasian Plate. Thus the country is at the junction of three important tectonic zones: the Alps to the north, the Dinaric Alps to the south and the Pannonian Basin to the east. Scientists have been able to identify 60 destructive earthquakes in the past. Additionally, a network of seismic stations is active throughout the country.