Eastern Slovenia

Iron Age chieftains were buried with decorated bronze buckets, or situlae, around Novo Mesto, and under Rome the region had three important towns: Poetovio at Ptuj, a legionary base and trading centre on the Drava, Celeia at Celje, and Neviodunum near Krško. After Slavic settlement the lands became part of Habsburg Styria and Carniola, while Prekmurje beyond the Mura belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary for about a thousand years.

In the 14th and 15th centuries the Counts of Celje rose from local lords to one of the most powerful families in Central Europe, related by marriage to the kings of Hungary and Bosnia, until the last count, Ulrich II, was killed in 1456 and his lands passed to the Habsburgs. Ottoman raids in the 15th and 16th centuries left the region's churches fortified and peasant revolts followed. Maribor, Ptuj and Celje remained largely German-speaking towns in a Slovene countryside until the 20th century.

In November 1918 General Rudolf Maister secured Maribor for the new South Slav state, and in 1919 Prekmurje joined it too. The Second World War brought German annexation of Styria with mass deportations, Hungarian occupation of Prekmurje and Italian rule in the south-east, where the German-speaking Gottscheers of Kočevje were resettled. Under Yugoslavia Maribor, Celje and Velenje became industrial centres, and the collapse of their factories after 1991 hit the east hard; protests in Maribor in 2012 sparked demonstrations across Slovenia.

The east contains several of Slovenia's historic provinces, each with its own identity: Štajerska (Styria) around Maribor, Celje and Ptuj; Koroška, the small Slovene part of Carinthia; Prekmurje and Prlekija along the Mura; and Dolenjska, Posavje and Bela krajina in the south-east. Prekmurje stands out most. Its dialect is hard for other Slovenes to follow, Hungarian is co-official around Lendava, and it has Slovenia's main Lutheran community, alongside Catholic villages with churches such as Plečnik's at Bogojina.

Ptuj's Kurentovanje is the country's best-known carnival, when kurenti in sheepskin costumes, horned masks and cowbells go through the streets to drive away winter; their door-to-door rounds are inscribed on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. St Martin's Day in November, when must becomes wine, is celebrated across the Styrian hills, and many families keep a small vineyard cottage, the zidanica, for weekends.

Bela krajina, on the Kolpa river border with Croatia, is known for white embroidered costume, circle dances and painted Easter eggs. Maribor has a university, a national theatre and an annual summer Lent festival, and was European Capital of Culture in 2012. Across the region, brass bands, harvest festivals and the fire brigade dances of rural villages mark the calendar.

Maribor, with about 95,000 people, is Slovenia's second city; Celje has about 38,000, and Novo Mesto, Velenje, Ptuj, Murska Sobota, Krško, Brežice and Slovenj Gradec are the other main towns. Much of the population lives in villages and small towns spread over farmland and hills.

Industry remains important. Novo Mesto has the pharmaceutical company Krka and a Renault car plant, Velenje the household-appliance maker Gorenje and a large coal mine feeding the Šoštanj power station, and Krško Slovenia's nuclear power plant, jointly owned with Croatia. Celje and Maribor have engineering, logistics and service firms, Laško its brewery, and Rogaška Slatina its mineral water and glassworks. Farming, wine and spa tourism support Prekmurje and the Styrian hills.

Incomes in the north-east are below the national average, and young people often move to Ljubljana or across the border to work in Austria. The planned closure of the Velenje coal mine, a possible second reactor at Krško, flooding along the rivers and the thinning of hill villages are current issues.

The east has Slovenia's richest cooking. Prekmurska gibanica is a layered cake of pastry filled with poppy seed, cottage cheese, walnuts and apple, and bograč, a paprika stew of several meats, shows the Hungarian influence, as does bujta repa, sour turnip cooked with pork. Pumpkin seed oil, dark green and nutty, is pressed in Styria and Prekmurje and poured over salads and even ice cream.

Styria's hills are the country's biggest white-wine area. The Jeruzalem–Ormož and Haloze hills and the slopes around Maribor make Laški rizling (Welschriesling), Šipon (Furmint), Sauvignon and Traminer, and Gornja Radgona is known for sparkling wine. Kisla juha, a Styrian sour soup, is served at the end of a long night.

In Dolenjska the local wine is cviček, a light, low-alcohol blend of red and white grapes, while Bela krajina makes the dark red Metliška črnina and belokranjska pogača, a flat bread scored and sprinkled with cumin and salt. Posavje's Bizeljsko hills age wine in cellars dug into the sand, and Laško beer and Rogaška's mineral water are the everyday drinks.

Maribor's Lent quarter along the Drava holds the Old Vine and old houses, with the cathedral, castle and main square a short walk away and the ski slopes and forests of Pohorje above the city. Ptuj has its hilltop castle, the town tower, Roman remains and wine cellars, and the Jeruzalem wine road and the Haloze hills lie nearby. Celje's Old Castle overlooks the Savinja, and the town has the Princely Palace, home to its regional museum.

The Logar Valley, in the Upper Savinja valley near Solčava, is a glacial valley closed by rock walls, with the Rinka waterfall; the Solčava panoramic road and Robanov kot lie beside it. Koroška has Slovenj Gradec and the underground tours of the old lead mine beneath Mount Peca.

Prekmurje's plains have the thermal spas of Moravske Toplice and Radenci, the floating mill on the Mura at Veržej, the medieval round church at Selo and Lendava's vineyards and castle. Rogaška Slatina's spa park dates from the 19th century, and Olimje has a Baroque monastery pharmacy. In the south-east, Novo Mesto rises above a bend of the Krka, and the valley leads past the island castle of Otočec, Žužemberk's castle and the charterhouse of Pleterje to Kostanjevica na Krki, built on an island in the river, and on to Brežice castle and the Čatež spa near the Sava.