page_title: Ljubljana
section_title: Early modern
hierarchical_section_title: Ljubljana / History / Early modern
context_page_description: Ljubljana is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It has been the cultural, educational, economic, political, and administrative centre of independent Slovenia since 1991.
  During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the area. Ljubljana itself was first mentioned in the first half of the 12th century. Situated at the middle of a trade route between the northern Adriatic Sea and the Danube region, it was the historical capital of Carniola, one of the Slovene-inhabited parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. It was under Habsburg rule from the Middle Ages until the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. After World War II, Ljubljana became the capital of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It retained this status until Slovenia became independent in 1991 and Ljubljana became the capital of the newly formed state.
context_section_description: In the 15th century, Ljubljana became recognised for its art, particularly painting and sculpture. The Roman Rite Catholic Diocese of Ljubljana was established in 1461 and the Church of St. Nicholas became the diocesan cathedral. After the 1511 Idrija earthquake, the city was rebuilt in the Renaissance style and a new wall was built around it. Wooden buildings were forbidden after a large fire at New Square in 1524.
  In the 16th century, the population of Ljubljana numbered 5,000, 70% of whom spoke Slovene as their first language, with most of the rest using German. The first secondary school, public library and printing house opened in Ljubljana. Ljubljana became an important educational centre.
  From 1529, Ljubljana had an active Slovene Protestant community. After they were expelled in 1598, marking the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, Catholic Bishop Thomas Chrön ordered the public burning of eight cartloads of Protestant books.
  In 1597, Jesuits arrived in the city, followed in 1606 by the Capuchins, to eradicate Protestantism. Only 5% of all the residents of Ljubljana at the time were of Catholic confession, so it took quite a while to make it Catholic again. Jesuits organised the first theatrical productions in the town, fostered the development of Baroque music and established Catholic schools. In the middle and the second half of the 17th century, foreign architects built and renovated numerous monasteries, churches, and palaces in Ljubljana and introduced Baroque architecture. In 1702, the Ursulines settled in the town, where, the following year, they opened the first public school for girls in the Slovene Lands. Some years later, the construction of Ursuline Church of the Holy Trinity started. In 1779, St. Christopher's Cemetery replaced the cemetery at St. Peter's Church as the main Ljubljana cemetery.
caption: "Laybach" (Ljubljana) in Johann Weikhard von Valvasor's work The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola of 1689
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