STA, 13 September 2021 - Cavers from the Ljubljana Cave Exploration Association surpassed a depth of 1000 metres in a cave under the highland glacial karst area on the Kanin mountains. The newly discovered cave is one of the 100 deepest caves in the world, said Matic Di Batista, president of the association.

The newly discovered cave in a cave system called the "Abyss of the Sleeping Dinosaur" (Brezno spečega dinozavra )is also the tenth in Slovenia with a depth of more than 1000 metres.

Cavers started exploring the Abyss in 2007, but abandoned the exploration because they could not find a way forward at a depth of 300 metres.

They said that advanced lighting has now enabled them to go further. In the four expeditions undertaken earlier this year, the cavers have reached a depth of 730 metres.

Their exploration continued last weekend, as they discovered that the cave goes even deeper, eventually leading them to a chamber at a depth of 1040 metres.

"The cave is about two kilometres long. It is also interesting because from a depth of 350 metres onwards, we were accompanied by a rather large amount of water, which disappeared several times and then reappeared at a lower depth."

"During the latest operation, we explored and measured a total of 580 metres of new underground tunnels," the cavers said in their report.

STA, 11 September 2021 - The main ceremony remembering the return of the western Primorska region to the homeland was held in Idrija, west of Ljubljana, on Saturday. The event also marked 74 years since the implementation of the Paris Peace Treaty under which Primorska was reunited with Slovenia after being under Italian rule since the end of WWI.

The keynote speaker at the ceremony ahead of the 15 September holiday was a young scientist from Idrija who lives in the US, Nina Leskovec.

Idrija Mayor Tomaž Vencelj said it was important this year's ceremony was held in Idrija, which has been an important part of Primorska for half a century and made the region richer with its natural beauty, heritage and successful economy.

The cultural programme in Idrija's central square presented the life and work of Črtomir Šinkovec (1914-1983), a partisan, poet, journalist and editor from Vojsko pri Idriji, and concluded with Primorska Rising, the region's informal anthem.

President Borut Pahor told the press after the show that this song was what connected the region's people in rebellion, and connected them in standing up to occupying forces in WWII.

"Perhaps other people in Slovenia find it difficult to understand that almost all people of Primorska perceive the red star differently. At the time it was a symbol of resistance. After the war crimes did occur under it, but this symbol of resistance cannot be taken away from the people of Primorska," he said.

The president said it was necessary to live together in harmony and understand each other. "I think there is enough space for everyone to live together, but this era being what it is, we have to make an effort."

While all Slovenian people were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until World War One, the western region of Primorska became part of Italy after the war.

The Paris peace conference ended in 1919 with no solution to the border issue between Italy and the newly-emerged Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovens, Yugoslavia's predecessor.

Then, under the 1920 Rapallo Treaty, Italy got what is roughly referred to as Primorska, including the cities of Trieste and Gorizia, Vipava and Soča Valleys, Kras, Istria and parts of the Notranjska region.

The area remained under Italy, or under Nazi Germany after its 1943 capitulation, until the end of WWII, when Istria and Trieste were occupied by Yugoslav Partisans, while the western part of Primorska was taken by the allies.

The allies made the Partisans retreat in June 1945, dividing the area into two zones, one under the allied command and the other under the Yugoslav military administration.

The 1947 Paris Peace Treaty brought a compromise, giving Yugoslavia a large part of the areas it wanted to have under its administration, including around Gorizia and Trieste.

As a result, the majority of Primorska people were brought under Yugoslavia after suffering under Fascism for more than 20 years and then briefly under Nazi Germany.

Nevertheless, an estimated 140,000 Slovenians remained outside Yugoslavia's borders, as the peace treaty gave Italy Gorizia, Resia, Benečija and Val Canale.

Day of Return of Primorska to the Motherland, evoking the implementation of the Paris Peace Treaty, has been celebrated since 2005, being introduced under the Janez Janša government, although not as a work-free day.

STA, 9 September 2021 -  Another seven stumbling stones or Stolpersteine were laid in Ljubljana on Thursday to honour the memory of the city's Jewish citizens who were torn from their homes during WWII and taken to concentration camps in Europe. After that, an exhibition on the story of a Ljubljana Jewish family was opened.

The latest Stolpersteine commemorative plaques bring the total of stumbling stones in Ljubljana to 68, and they are located at 24 different locations.

Ljubljana Jewish Cultural Centre data shows the Slovenian capital has the largest number of such stones in Europe relative to the percentage of Jews that lived there and died as Holocaust victims.

The project is part of a wider initiative first launched by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992 that aims to commemorate persons at their last known place of residence before they fell victim to Nazi terror.

The brass stones feature inscriptions displaying the victim's name, date of birth and fate. There are now more than 75,000 of them installed in more than 1,200 cities across Europe and Russia, making this the world's largest decentralised memorial.

In Slovenia, such memorial blocks have been laid in Ljubljana, Maribor and the north-east of the country, Lendava and Murska Sobota, where most of Slovenian Jews lived before WWII.

Today's stone-laying ceremonies were organised by the Ljubljana Jewish Cultural Centre, the Maribor Synagogue, and the Ljubljana municipality.

The first two out of the seven stumbling stones were laid at Križevniška 5 to commemorate Theodor Kron and Angelo Hajmann. Memorial blocks were also installed to honour the memory of Ivan Roth (Vegova 8) and Artur Silberstein, Pavla Silberstein, Stevan Savić and Đuro Savić (Korytkova 22).

Stolpersteine are "an artwork, individual and collective memory, which aims to rouse our lulled souls", the head of the Jewish Cultural Centre, Robert Waltl, said on the occasion.

The centre also prepared the exhibition titled Holocaust in Ljubljana - the Silberstein-Savić Family at the Mini Theatre venue, which was opened by Estera Savić Bizjak, a descendant of the family.

The stone-laying ceremony was meanwhile also attended by President Borut Pahor, an honorary sponsor of this project in Slovenia.

Pahor laid the first stumbling stone on 6 August 2018 together with the author of the project, German artist Demnig at Cankarjevo Nabrežje in Ljubljana, his office said in a release.

Related: "Undeleted” Remembers Jewish Residents of Ljubljana Killed in Holocaust

STA, 5 August 2021 - The first ever public demonstration of fully encrypted quantum communication between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia took place during the meeting of G20 digital economy ministers in Trieste on Thursday.

It was the first time in history that fully quantum encrypted communication was made possible by means of optical fibres connecting three nodes, in Trieste, Ljubljana and Rijeka.

In Ljubljana, the event was held at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (FMF), whose dean Anton Ramšak noted that quantum communication would allow what have so far been unattainable levels of communication security.

"Comparing the security of encryption methods established so far and quantum communication is like comparing bows and arrows with guns," Ramšak illustrated.

The technology uses quantum keys, sequences of random numbers established remotely through exchange of individual photons of light.

5. 8. je potekala prva javna demonstracija medvladne kvantne komunikacije. Prvič v zgodovini je bil omogočen povsem kvantno šifrirani prenos med vozlišči 3 držav (Trst, Ljubljana in Reka). Sodelovali so tudi fiziki @FMF_UL, prof. dr. Rainer Kaltenbaek in prof. dr. Anton Ramšak. pic.twitter.com/3eNTiSSLq7

— FMF UL (@FMF_UL) August 6, 2021

The exchange protocol is based on quantum mechanics and if anyone tried to intercept the key, they would leave behind a trace that would alert those involved in communication and allow them to respond immediately.

In all other established technologies of information transfer, a copy of the key may be intercepted and copied without leaving a trace.

The quantum communication was tested by FMF physicists Rainer Kaltenbaek and Anton Ramšak in cooperation with their colleagues at the University of Trieste's Department of Physics and the National Research Council of Italy and Croatian physicists from the Ruđer Bošković Institute.

In his address, Kaltenbaek noted that Europe pioneered the field as early as 2012, but since the relevant institutions had not been willing to provide sufficient financial support, it was larger countries, mainly China which later took the initiative in implementing the technology.

Today's demonstration was also important in the context of the future European quantum communication infrastructure (EuroQCI), which is being promoted by the 27 EU member countries and the European Commission with the support of the European Space Agency.

The event depended on technical support of the link between Trieste and the FMF in Ljubljana via Postojna that was made possible by the telecommunications provider Telekom Slovenije through its modern network of optical links by means of dark fibres.

The test was the first ever application of quantum laws of nature outside science labs with the purpose of establishing fully secure communication.

After addresses by keynote speakers, a short concert was performed by musicians from the Giuseppe Tartini State Conservatory of Trieste and the academies of music in Ljubljana and Zagreb using the breakthrough quantum communication technology.

STA, 3 August 2021 - Slovenian archaeologists have discovered several finds along the river Ljubljanica during the renovation Zlata Ladjica house, including the foundations of the Butcher's Bridge, which has since the Middle Ages been replaced by the current Shoemaker's Bridge. 

The find did not come as a surprise because the Butcher's Bridge in what is now Jurčič Square was known from historical records, yet it is the first material evidence to prove its existence, Martin Horvat, an archaeologist at the Ljubljana Museum and Galleries (MGML), told the STA on Tuesday.

Arheologi so na Jurčičevem trgu v Stari Ljubljani odkrili temelje srednjeveškega Mesarskega mostu, ki je stal na mestu sedanjega Čevljarskega mostu, kar vzbuja zanimanje sprehajalcev. Več zanimivih zgodb o mostovih je podal arheolog Martin Horvat iz @mgml.https://t.co/FowdRzWfqk pic.twitter.com/xruc4Fnyop

— Turizem Ljubljana (@TurizemLJ) August 5, 2021

The Butcher's Bridge was first indirectly mentioned around 1280, when a piece of information appeared about an Old Bridge, located where the Triple Bridge stands now. The mention of the Old Bridge meant a new bridge - the Butcher's Bridge - must have been built by then where the Shoemaker's Bridge is now.

"At first it was very probably fully made of wood, including the foundations on both river banks," said Horvat.

Still, the newly discovered foundations are from sometime later, probably the 14th century. They are made of a kind of bricks, while the bridge itself was probably made of wood.

In the second half of the 19th century, the bridge was replaced by an iron bridge and renamed after Mayor Johann Nepomuk Hradecky, while in the 1930s, the current Shoemaker's Bridge was build there, designed by architect Jože Plečnik.

The bridge names reflected the business being done there: butcher's shops on the Butcher's Bridge were mentioned in the 16th century, but were banned from it at the start of the 17th century for the smell and water pollution. The bridge was then occupied by other craftsmen, increasingly by shoe makers, hence the name the Shoemaker's Bridge.

The excavations in Jurčič Square have also led to the discovery of the remains of Roman and Medieval riverbanks, while a bit earlier, archaeologists were surprised to discover finds related to a blacksmith's shop from the 12th century. Another interesting find is a giant sewage pipe from the end of the 17th or early 18th century.

The archaeologists started working in Jurčič Square around two months ago to supervise the start of construction work.

While the excavations have been completed there, they have moved to the other side of the Zlata Ladjica (Golden Ship) house, where they expect to come across more finds related to the blacksmith's shops as well as more of the riverbanks from the Middle Ages and later.

In the Middle Ages, one to three metres of the riverbank was "acquired" by way of using various materials to narrow the river, Horvat explained.

He also highlighted that this area - known as Breg - used to be Ljubljana's main port for all goods transported on the Ljubljanica, with all the needed facilities such as warehouses or customs offices, some of whose foundations Horvat hopes will be found.