Carinthia

Carinthia, also Slovene Carinthia or Slovenian Carinthia (Slovenska Koroška), is a traditional region in northern Slovenia. The term refers to the small southeasternmost area of the former Duchy of Carinthia, which after World War I was allocated to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs according to the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain. It has no distinct centre, but a local centre in each of the three central river valleys among the heavily forested mountains. Since the entry of Slovenia into the European Union in May 2004, much effort has been made to re-integrate Carinthia as a cultural, tourism, and economic unit. The historical region has no official status within Slovenia and does not territorially correspond to today's Carinthia Statistical Region, but popular identification with Carinthia as an informal province remains common. Geography The region lies in the Karawanks mountain range of the Southern Limestone Alps and comprises two spatially divided areas totalling : the Meža Valley (Mežiška dolina) down to the confluence with the Drava Valley (Dravska dolina), including the municipalities of Črna na Koroškem, Mežica, Prevalje, Ravne na Koroškem, and Dravograd. the Municipality of Jezersko south of the Seeberg Saddle mountain pass. All these municipalities border on the Austrian state of Carinthia in the north.