City (pop., 2002 prelim.: 257,338), capital of Slovenia .
Located on the Ljubljanica River, it is surrounded by the northern Dinaric Alps . The site of the Roman city of Emona in the 1st century BC, it was destroyed in the 5th century AD and rebuilt by the Slavs as Luvigana. It passed to Carniola in the 12th century and came under Illyrian Provinces until 1813 and the capital of the kingdom of Illyria from 1816 to 1849. It was the centre of Slovene nationalism under Austrian rule, and in 1918 it became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). It remained the Slovene capital after Slovenia's independence in 1992. A railroad and commercial centre, it is the site of the University of Ljubljana (founded 1595).