HISTORY

PREHISTORY
The Ljubljana Marshes, around 2000 BC, in the immediate vicinity of Ljubljana were settled by people living in pile dwelings. These lake-dweling people lived through hunting, fishing and primitive agriculture. They used dugout canoes by cutting out the inside of tree trunks, so they could get around the marshes. The archeological remains, nowadays in the Municipality of Ig, have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage since june 2011, in the common nomination of six Alpine states.

The area remained a transit point for numerous tribes and people, among them Illyrians, followed by mixed nation of Celts and Illyrians called the Iapydes. In the 3rd century BC a Celtic tribe, the Tarusci.

ANTIQUITY
The Romans built a military encampment around 50 BC that later became a permanent settlement called Iulia Aemona. The entrenched fort was occupied by the Legio XV Apollinaris in 452 and was destroyed by the Huns under Attila’s orders. Later by the Ostrogoths and the Lombards. Emona had 5000 – 6000 inhabitants and played important role during numerous battles. Plastered brick houses in the city, painted in different colors, were already connected to a drainage systems. The antcestors of the Slovene moved in in 6th century. In the 9th century the Slovenes fell under Frankish domination, experiencing frequent Magyar raids. During the settlement of Slavs much is not known about the area in the period between the downfall of Emona and the Early Middle Ages.

MIDDLE AGES