With their traditional houses and snug barns, the villages of Bojanci, Marindol, Miliči, and Paunoviči look like most other settlements in Slovenia’s Bela Krajina region. But what makes them special is not readily apparent to casual visitors: They are the home of Slovenia’s small indigenous Serbian community.

The villages were settled in the 16th and 17th centuries by ethnically Serbs Uskoks, who were driven from their homes in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina by the advancing Ottoman Army. While most Uskoks assimilated with the local population, the residents of the four villages have maintained their unique identity all the way to the present.

Two of the villages – Bojanci and Miliči – boast Serbian Orthodox churches where villagers still gather for traditional Orthodox holidays, and both the gravestones and any posted notices are written in the Cyrillic script. The Serbian language is still alive and well among the older population.

However, many younger people have become monolingual Slovenian speakers. One reason for the linguistic shift is the propensity of younger people to marry outside the Serbian community. Before World War II, it was common for the residents of these villages to seek out Serbian partners across the border in Croatia, where there were more Serbian villages. Since the war, however, many of the villagers have married into Slovene families.

The changes are raising concern that these indigenous Serbian communities, the most northerly anywhere, are in danger of losing the cultural identity that makes them so special.