Slovenia's Fairy Tale Capital

Visiting Ljubljana, Slovenia’s 1,000-year-old capital, feels like stepping into an ancient fable. Despite decades under communist rule, there’s magic to the intimate city: It’s the sort of place where you can stroll past jelly-bean-colored Baroque churches, over a bridge flanked by dragons — Ljubljana’s mascot — onto winding cobblestone lanes filled with local farmers selling peonies the size of lap dogs and creaky inns serving bear meat.

But in the past few years, an influx of chefs, artists and musicians has reinvigorated the once-sleepy city. 

From “The Fairest of Them All” by Bianca Bosker for The New York Times T Magazine, 2016; Photo by Federico Ciamei

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