Graphic: the Queen's 56 years of global travel

Back home she is just the Queen, but in the Balkans she is a cultural icon to be mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles. That, at least, is the opinion of the Slovenian President, whose pronouncement is a hint of the level of excitement greeting the start of the Queen’s state visit.

This is her 87th state visit and it comes at a time when it might have been assumed that, after more than 50 years on the throne, she is running out of countries to call upon. However, the fall of communism nearly 20 years ago and the subsequent redrawing of the map of Europe has ensured a supply of freshly minted states.

This week it is the turn of Slovenia, which did not exist as a separate state until 1991 and the beginning of the disintegration of Yugoslavia. The Queen’s visit dominated the television news, although perhaps the station that chose a picture of the Prince and Princess of Wales kissing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as the backdrop to its coverage was a little out of touch.

For his part, President Türk more than made up for any news slips with his enthusiasm. The Queen, he told The Times, was very much admired in Slovenia. “She is a cultural icon of Europe and the whole world. She is highly appreciated for her wisdom, for her dignity, her character. She has a cultural role which goes much beyond the borders of the United Kingdom.”

Dr Türk, a former United Nations assistant secretary-general, said it was symbolic that the head of one of the oldest monarchies in Europe was visiting one of the youngest countries in Europe. “Britain is an important cultural phenomenon for this country. Many people of my generation were raised at a time of the Beatles, which changed the cultural landscape of the world. That creates a sense of friendship which is quite genuine.”

Slovenia is the Balkans’ success story. Even before 1991 it was known as the Switzerland of Yugoslavia, a reference to its relative wealth as much as its Alpine landscape. Since proclaiming independence it has joined the European Union and Nato, and adopted the euro as its currency.

Being the Balkans, however, it is hard to avoid the shadow of history, and before she arrived the Queen was pressed by campaigners to make some expression of regret about the 12,000 anticommunist Slovenes – domo-branci, or Home Guard – who were sent back from Austria by the British at the end of the Second World War, only to be executed by Tito’s forces.

John Corsellis, 85, who was a young refugee worker in Austria at the time, said: “The Slovenes consider this the biggest tragedy that ever happened to the Slovene people.”

There was never any chance of the Queen saying something: that is politics, and she does not do politics. Diplomatically, Dr Türk said that it was a matter for historians, not present-day moral judgments.

After their arrival at Ljubljana airport, whose diminutive size is more than offset by the majestic mountains and forest that border it, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were given a proper welcome of Ruritanian formality at the 16th-century Brdo Castle, which was once Tito’s summer retreat. There, everything was as precise as it could be: even the braided, black-booted presidential guard of honour were lined up using a length of cord to ensure that not a toe was out of place.

For her arrival the Queen wore a green coat trimmed with black fur and a matching hat designed by her personal assistant, Angela Kelly; for the state banquet at Brdo Castle she wore a floor-length dress made from a length of silver and gold brocade that she was given on a Middle Eastern visit 20 years ago. This thriftiness is said to be known among Buckingham Palace staff as credit crunch couture – though not, one assumes, by the Queen herself.

In the exchange of gifts the Queen was given a china tea set decorated with images inspired by Big Ben intertwined with carnations, Slovenia’s national flower, while the Duke received a book of heraldic insignia by Janez Vajkard Valvasor, a Slovene historian and geographer who was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1687. Dr Türk was given a book of Holbein drawings from the Windsor archive and a silver trinket box. He was also presented with the Order of Grand Knight Commander of the Bath.

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